Far Dreams
by Kuromoki
Summary: Discontinued.
1. Chapter 1

10-year old Ash Ketchum was excited. Tomorrow he would finally receive his first Pokemon and start his Pokemon journey. Which was why right now he was getting ready for bed much earlier then he usually would. He definitely did not want to oversleep for tomorrow.

Making sure that his alarm clock was working properly, he set the time so that it would wake him up 2 hours before he was expected to be at the Oak Coral. With that done, Ash drifted off into sleep, dreaming of the adventures that was to come.

...

*Vo...Voo...Vool...VOOL!*

Slapping down on his alarm clock, Ash groggily got up from bed and hobbled towards the showers. Stepping under the warm water, Ash gradually woke up from his groggy state.

"Ugh. I really have to get rid of this habit of sleeping so much..." Muttering that to himself, Ash dried himself off and headed back to his room.

Quickly changing out of his pajamas, he put on a pair of loose jeans along with a black long sleeved shirt. Grabbing the white adjustable short sleeve jacket from his closet, he put it on while grabbing the traveling bag he prepared last night and made his way downstairs.

Downstairs, he called out a greeting to his mom. "Morning mom!"

Delia who was putting the finishing touches on breakfast turned to him and said, "Good morning to you too dear. Are you excited for today?"

Ash grinned. "Of course! I'll be getting my first Pokemon today and starting my Pokemon journey as well!", Taking a seat, Ash started piling food onto his plate before he started devouring it with gusto.

Delia who was watching while eating her own couldn't help but say. "Ash, dear, you should really eat slower. I know I taught you manners and on your journey, if people see you eating like that, they'll be scared of you, you know."

Ash gulped down the food in his mouth and said, "Sorry, I'm just so excited that I want to hurry up."

Delia sighed. "I know dear, but you don't need to rush that badly do you?"

"Hehe. Sorry."

Heaving another sigh, Delia said, "Well just remember to mind your manners on your journey. Heaven knows how bad you can act sometimes."

Ash looked indignant at this. "Hey! I'm not that bad mom!"

Delia looked at Ash sardonically, "Like the time you called the grocer an old lady?"

"It's true! She's old!"

"Ash, dear. No one likes to be called old and it's proper manners to never ask someones age."

"...alright..."

"Good, now eat up. You'll be on your journey for a while, so this'll be your last meal here for a while."

"Right!"

...

Climbing the steep steps towards Oak Coral, Ash couldn't help but feel excited. He was so close to starting his journey! True he may be here at least an hour early, but soon enough he would be off! Adjusting his special League-ordered Cap, Ash reached the top of the stairs.

Arriving at the front door, he rung the bell. When no one answered after 5 minutes, he rung it again. When no one answered again, he kept ringing the bell until the door slammed open.

"I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME!" A shout greeted his ears and Prof. Oak appeared in front of him, huffing in anger.

"Ehehe. Sorry about that Prof. Oak. I was just so excited. I don't know what came over me."

Prof. Oak just grumbled under his breath. "Bah. Whatever. Seeing as you're here an hour early, I might as well let you choose your Starter now so there won't be a hassle later on when the other trainers show up." With that Prof. Oak led the way into the lab.

Arriving in front of a door, Prof. Oak entered with Ash following behind. Inside was a machine containing three Pokeballs arranged in a triangle formation. Ash looked at it with interest, but turned his attention to Prof. Oak when he cleared his throat.

"Now I'm sure you've thought long and hard about what starter you might want, but this is it. Which ever you choose now will be your starter. So choose wisely." Gesturing to the Pokeballs inside the machine Prof. Oak continued. "You have the Grass-type Bulbasaur, the Fire-type Charmander, and the Water-type Squirtle. take your time to choose."

Ash didn't even hesitate, he immediately moved forward and grabbed the one containing Charmander.

Prof. Oak asked, "You're certain?"

"Of course."

"In that case, let me congratulate you on your first Pokemon. Let me just register you into the League Databases and you're good to go. Why don't you get to know your new Pokemon while I do that." Saying that, Prof. Oak moved to the terminal in the corner of the room.

Ash meanwhile released the Pokeball in his hand and his Charmander appeared in a flash of white light. It shook it's head a bit before looking around. When it spotted Ash, it looked up and down before giving a nod.

Ash bent down until he was eye level with Charmander and said, "Well, buddy it looks like we'll be partners. Let's get along shall we?" Holding out his hand in a friendly gesture, the Charmander looked at it before returning the friendly gesture. Ash smiled at this.

"Ah, Ash. It looks like both of you are getting along just fine." Prof. Oak who had finished whatever he was doing then handed Ash 5 Pokeballs. With that Ash prepared to leave but was stopped when Prof. Oak started speaking again.

"Ash, my boy, you forgot the Pokedex."

Ash turned around at this. "Ah. Right. Sorry about that." Turning around, Ash picked up one of the Pokedex's lying on a nearby table. He chose a black colored one since red seemed too bright for his tastes.

"Well, I'll see you later Prof. Oak. I'll be sure to contact you when I reach Viridian City."

"Ah. I'll see you later Ash and don't forget to register your information onto the Pokedex!."

Exiting the lab, Ash turned his sight towards the exit of Pallet town. Turning to look at his Charmander, he said, "Well, looks like this is the start of our journey."

"Char!"

Walking down the steps Ash saw that his mom was waiting for him at the foot of the steps.

"Mom!"

Delia hearing her boy's voice turned to look at Ash descending the stairs with a Charmander by his side smiled at this. "Ash, dear. So you chose a Charmander as your partner?"

"That's right!"

Stopping at the foot of the stairs, Delia bent down until she was eye-level with the Charmander. "So you're my boy's partner?"

Charmander looked at Delia and let out an affirmative 'char'.

"Hehe. Then I'll leave my boy in your capable hands, okay?"

Charmander puffed out it's chest at this. Delia just giggled. Getting up, she looked at Ash and said, "Look's like you have a very capable starter huh."

Ash smiled. "Haha, looks like it."

"Well, be sure to look after her properly, okay?"

Ash looked blank at this. "Her...?"

Delia giggled again. "That's right, her."

Ash looked at the Charmander next to him which nodded at him.

"Haha... that I did not know..." Rubbing the back of his head, he could only laugh awkwardly.

Delia released another giggle. "Well it's to be expected. Only people with a lot of experience can tell the gender differences between Pokemon. I'm sure you'll pick up on it during your journey."

"Yea. I guess that's true. But why are you here mom?" Ash asked.

"Why I'm going to see my boy off, and to make sure you have everything you need."

"Of course I have everything mom! I prepared everything last night! I even double-checked."

"Hehe. Well as a mother I have to be sure now don't I?"

Ash blushed at this.

"Well good luck on your journey dear. I'll be sure to be rooting for you."

Ash nodded at this. "Yea, I'll make sure to call you every time I'm in a city."

With that Ash said, "Come on. Let's go Charmander." and started walking towards the exit of Pallet Town.

Delia who had watched them off couldn't help but sigh sadly once both of them were out of sight. "And he's gone as well." Shaking her head, she headed back home. She had some things to do.

...

Walking onto Route 1, Ash and Charmander followed the dirt path without stopping until they reached a river. Sitting down at a tree next to the river, Ash took out his Pokedex and started registering his information like Prof. Oak had said.

Charmander who was watching him silently looked around any now and then as if looking for other Pokemon in the area, but Ash knew that Route 1 had mostly docile Pokemon, so he didn't worry too much about it.

When he was done, he put his Pokedex away and turned to Charmander.

"Charmander."

Hearing it's name being called, Charmander turned it's attention to it's trainer.

"Since we'll be partners, I guess I'll tell you my dream."

Charmander made a curious face at this.

"My dream is two-fold. The first is to catch every single type of Pokemon out there." Here Charmander looked surprised but listened on. "The second is to sweep through the Elite Four of all regions." Charmander looked even more surprised at this.

"I know both goals are pretty far away considering I just started my journey, but will you help me?"

"Char!"

"Heh, I knew I could count on you. For now, we'll get a small team of elites and then when we catch more Pokemon, you guys can help train them up. How does that sound?"

"Char char!"

"In that case, let's get going. I want to get to Viridian before night fall. Especially since it said that there would be a storm this afternoon."

"Char!"

As Ash and Charmander continued down the road, they saw a few Rattatas, Pidgeys, and a few Spearows. Nothing that caught Ash's interest, so he ignored them. Though he did battle a few of them to get a general idea of what level Charmander stood at. So far Ash saw that Charmander only seemed to know Scratch and Growl. He would have to work on teaching her at least Ember since she had no ranged attacks which was a boon against all the flying types that held the advantage over her.

After a few hours of walking, Viridian City was in sight. Though the sky was quickly starting to grow dark. No doubt a a precursor to the storm that was coming.

As he entered the city proper, he was halted by an Officer Jenny.

"Stop! What are you doing here and what's that Pokemon doing following you around?"

Ash turned to face the Officer Jenny. "Um, I just came here from Pallet and Charmanders my Pokemon, I just didn't want to keep her in her Pokeball."

Officer Jenny narrowed her eye's in suspicion before asking, "Do you have identification?"

Ash nodded and brought out his Pokedex. Handing it over to the Officer, he waited patiently.

Officer Jenny looked through the information and then looked at the picture of the owner. After confirming it was his, she nodded and handed back the Pokedex. "Sorry about that. But security's gone up around the city since the last Team Rocket poaching."

"I see." Ash nodded at this. Team Rocket was notorious in the Kanto and Johto region. It wasn't surprising that security around a city would go up after a poaching. "Can you point me in the direction of the Pokemon Center?"

"Ah? Oh, you want to go to the Pokemon Center? Sure, I'll drive you, I was just about to head that way anyway since my shift's over."

"Er. I wouldn't want to impose."

"Nonsense, just get in." Gesturing to the passenger seat of here motorbike.

"...In that case, I hope you don't mind." Getting into the passenger seat, he grabbed hold of Charmander and buckled both of them in. "Alright, you're free to go."

"Don't mind if I do!" With that, Officer Jenny revved up the bike before it was off.

...

Screeching to a stop in front of the Pokemon Center, Officer Jenny let out a content sigh. Meanwhile Ash and Charmander wobbly got out of the passenger seat, though there legs were shaking and both looked like they wanted to puke.

"Well, here's the Pokemon Center. Excuse me, but I'll be heading off to the station, come over if you need to report any suspicious activity in the vicinity or give us a call." With that she drove off with the same wild flair as before.

"Huff-huff. That was scary. I thought I was going to die... huff"

"C-char"

"W-well at least we're in front of the Pokemon Center. Let's go before it starts raining." Sure enough the dark clouds were hovering above and looked ready to rain anytime now.

Entering the Center, both were greeted to the sight of a mural of some sort. Ash didn't pay it much attention, instead he rung the bell on the counter. A Nurse Joy showed up a bit afterwards.

"Hello how may I help you?"

"Hi, I'd like to stay for the night and can you please check over my Charmander? I don't think she's injured but you can never be too sure."

"Of course. Can I please have your Pokedex so I can deduct the fee for staying the night."

"Here." handing her his Pokedex, he turned to Charmander. "Sorry buddy, but you'll have to return to your ball so that she can check you over."

Charmander nodded at this.

Ash returned Charmander to her Pokeball and handed it Nurse Joy who returned his Pokedex along with a Card Key.

"That will be your room for the night, please enjoy." Nodding, Ash headed towards the phone terminal.

Sitting in front of one in the corner, he called home. He waited patiently and soon enough, the screen changed to a black screen with -Sound Only- displayed.

"Hello? Who is it?"

"Ah...mom, it's me."

"This voice..! Ash?"

"Yea."

"Ah! Hold up, let me turn on the video."

As she said that, the screen changed from black to a picture of his mom.

"Hi mom!"

"Hello Ash, dear. Are you already in Viridian?"

"That's right. I wanted to get here quickly since there is going to be a storm soon."

"Ah, yes that. Well it's already raining here, so maybe it's raining over there too?"

"Hm?" Looking out of a window he saw that it was indeed raining. "Yea, looks like its raining here now too."

"So how's your journey so far? Did you catch any new Pokemon? How is Charmander? Why don't I see her anywhere?"

"Haha. My journey so far has been going fine. And no I didn't catch any new Pokemon. As for where Charmander is, she's getting a check up."

"Eh?! Did something happen to her?"

"Oh. No, nothing of that sort. She's fine. I just wanted her to get a check up just in case."

"Ah. I see. That's good. You have to properly take care of your Pokemon you know."

"I know."

"So what are you planning to do now? You've reached your first milestone of reaching Viridian."

"Hm. I was thinking of heading over to Route 22 and checking out the Indigo Plateau from there. After all I want to catch a glimpse of what I'm aiming for."

"Ah. Well that's nice but what about after?"

"...I guess I'll head to Pewter City for my first badge...?"

"I see... well good luck, I'll be rooting for you!"

"Ah. I'll call you again when I reach Pewter."

"Okay! Don't hesitate to call more than once! Bye~" With that the screen shut off.

"What was that about?" Ash mumbled to himself. It was as if something was bothering his mom. Shaking his head, he headed towards the Dining Hall of the Pokemon Center. An early dinner was in order since he wanted to get up early tomorrow so he could head to Route 22.

30 minutes later and Ash was relaxing in his room when he got a call from Nurse Joy that his Charmander was done with the check up and that he should come pick it up. Doing just that, Ash headed out to the front of get Charmander. Once that was done, he returned to his room and released her.

She appeared in a flash of light while shaking her head.

"Hey buddy. How'd the check up go?"

Charmander looked at her trainer and let out a 'char'.

"I'm guessing it went well?"

Charmander nodded at this.

"Hm... you know. I've thought of it while we were coming here, but do you want a nickname?"

Charmander looked at Ash and nodded vigorously.

"Hm... A feminine sounding name... how bout Flair? It will suit you perfectly when you start learning more of your fire-type moves that will add a flair to your attacks."

Charmander looked thoughtful at this. Eventually it nodded.

"Well, in that case, nice to meet you Flair."

"Char!"

Looking at the clock he saw that it was approaching 9 PM. "Well, it's still early, but how about going to sleep? I want to go to Route 22 tomorrow to see if I can catch a glimpse of the Indigo Plateau and it might be tiring to climb."

At this, Flair seemed to yawn. "Heh, looks like I'm not the only one that's tired."

"C-char..."

"Well let's go to sleep now." Getting into bed, he grabbed hold of Flair and slowly drifted off into sleep, basking the warmness that was Flair.

...

Waking up to a beam of light entering the room from the windows, Ash rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Looking around him, he noticed that it wasn't his room. Then the full weight of where he was hit him. He was on his Pokemon journey and he had left home. Now how his mom acted last night in the call made sense. She wouldn't be seeing him everyday anymore, but only when he called back home.

Shaking his head, he could only hope the rumors of Silph Co. making a device that acted as a portable phone was true.

Getting off the bed, he moved towards the showers. Getting in, he turned it on and let the cold water bring him to full awareness. Once that was done, he got out and looked at the dozing Flair. Deciding against waking her up, he walked out while locking the door.

Heading towards the Dining Hall, he quickly ordered a quick breakfast for himself while ordering some Poke-chow specifically for fire-types. Looking at the food, he once more became aware of how he was expected to fend for himself now that he was out journeying. He held no illusions of magically finding a house with a free room in the wild. Shaking his head, he started on his breakfast.

15 minutes later he was heading back to his room with Poke-chow in hand. When he opened the door, he saw that Flair was still sleeping. Going over to her, he slowly shook her awake.

"Flair... wake up... it's time for breakfast."

Eventually she woke up and when she saw the Poke-chow, she came to full awareness and started eating it happily. Ash just smiled at this. He patiently waited for Flair to finish eating before saying, "Alright. You ready to head over to Route 22 now?"

"Char~" Flair let out happily.

Ash grabbed his bag from the chair he had deposited it last night and put on his jacket and walked out of the room with Flair a step behind him. As they walked past the counter, Ash returned the Card Key to Nurse Joy. She said, "Have a safe trip and please come again."

Walking into the sunshine, Ash stretched his arms upwards and felt them pop into place. "Well, let's get going shall we?"

Flair nodded. As the group traversed through the city, he passed by the Viridian City Gym which was bustling with trainers waiting for it to open. Ash knew as he was, he stood no chance. The Gym leader Giovanni was one of most notorious for being one of the hardest to win badges off of. The other being Blaine of Cinnibar Isle.

Once they found the exit leading towards Route 22, Ash took out his Pokedex and scanned Flair. He had forgotten all about the scan function of the Pokedex in his excitement about reaching Viridian and now was as good time as any to check where Flair stood.

Eventually the results showed up. "**Charmander. A flame burns on the tip of its tail from birth. It is said that a Charmander dies if its flame ever goes out. This Charmander is female and currently knows the moves Scratch and Growl.**"

About what Ash had expected. "Well buddy, looks like we'll get you started on learning Ember as we move through Route 22. Shouldn't be too hard. The concept is just shoot small flames out of your mouth or tail. Though using your tail requires more experience."

Flair nodded at this.

"Well, take your time. For now just concentrate on getting the flames out of your mouth quickly enough before moving onto your tail."

So went the first 30 minutes or so before they encountered some wild Rattata and the occasional Spearow. They worked well as target practice for Flair who was slowly getting the hang of using Ember from her mouth, but Ash decided that he wanted her to be able to instantly shoot it out of her mouth before he let her move onto trying with her tail.

As they approached the foot of the mountain a wild Nidoran appeared in front of them. Flair immediately moved to engage it while Ash took out his Pokedex and scanned it. "**Nidoran(M). It is small, but its horn is filled with poison. It charges then stabs with the horn to inject poison.**" Hearing that Ash called out to Flair, "Watch out for it's horn Flair! It has poison in it!"

Flair acknowledged his warning with a 'Char' and released an Ember from it's mouth towards Nidoran. However it jumped to the side to avoid it and charged at Flair with a classic Tackle. Flair moved out of the way and released another Ember as it charged by. This time it connected and Nidoran was pelted with small flames. However it endured it and charged at Flair once more. Flair moved out of the way again and released another Ember which connected again. This event repeated itself over and over until Nidoran was close to fainting from exhaustion.

Ash who had been observing the fight couldn't help but admire Nidorans endurance and stamina. Despite it being slower then Flair, it's sheer stubbornness was a sight to behold. Which was why he wanted to capture it. With a little work in the speed department, it would be a force to be reckoned with. Grabbing one of his empty Pokeballs, he tossed it at the panting Nidoran.

It bounced off it's side before it was engulfed in a red light. Falling to the ground, it shook a couple of times, but a ding was heard, signalling it's capture.

"Yea! Look Flair! We caught a Nidoran!"

Flair looked happy as well. Ash moved over to the Pokeball and picked it up. Releasing the Nidoran, it came out panting from exhaustion. Quickly setting down his pack, he opened it and rifled around for a potion that he had for occasions like this. Once he found it, he took it out and slowly moved towards the Nidoran. It watched him warily but did nothing as if accepting the fact that it was captured.

Ash quickly sprayed the potion all over Nidoran's burns and slowly it effects showed when Nidoran stopped panting from exhaustion and was able to move.

"Well... it looks like I'm your trainer now. Let's get along shall we?" Putting out his hand in a friendly gesture. The Nidoran sniffed at it before it nibbled on one of his fingers. "Haha, looks like we'll get along fine." Turning to Flair, he called her over. "Hey come over here Flair. Looks like you have a fellow partner as well."

Flair who had been observing from where she had originally been moved over to Ash. It gave a greeting to Nidoran who returned it.

"Hey Nidoran, how about accompanying us on our journey to the top huh?" Nidoran looked up curiously at Ash. This prompted Ash to explain his goals to the Nidoran and after that Ash waited for Nidoran to give him it's answer. Eventually it nodded and Ash smiled.

"Hey, hey! I was really impressed with how you managed to endure so many of Flair's Embers. Normally they would be knocked out after she used it once or twice" Here Flair puffed out her chest. "But you managed to endure it for at least 8 times! None of the Pokemon we encountered so far could endure so much" This time Nidoran looked proud. "Though, we'll have to work on your speed." Nidoran looked at Ash curiously at this.

"Yea, your speed. I don't know how much power you have, but watching you try to tackle Flair, I saw how slow you were. So we'll have to work on your speed so that you're faster then your opponents! That way they can't just dodge your attacks." Nidoran nodded at this.

Ash then turned to Flair. "I didn't forget about your either Flair. Nice job! At this rate, you'll have mastered using Ember from the mouth and then we can move onto using it from the tail!" Flair puffed out her chest again. "At this rate, we can get you started on learning smokescreen as well!... Ah!" Turning to Nidoran, he brought out his Pokedex. Scanning Nidoran, he scrolled down to it's current move set. "**This Nidoran(M) currently knows Tackle, Growl and Peck.**"

"Oh! You know as many attacks as Flair! Amazing!" Nidoran blushed at the praise. Flair growled at this.

"But hm... I don't think it's a good idea to try and teach you any new moves until we get your speed up to snuff. If you can't hit the target then there's no point in knowing the attack." Nidoran became depressed at this while Flair looked vindictive. Not that Ash was paying any attention as he mumbled to himself.

Eventually Flair pulled on his jeans. Looking down, he saw her pointing towards the mountain. "Right. We came here to catch a glimpse of the Indigo Plateau, so let's get going!" Both Flair and Nidoran released cheers at this.

With that, the trio started walking up the steep mountain. From what Ash had heard, the climb took about an hour and the cliff at the top overlooked the Indigo Plateau. As the trio ascended, they ran into more Rattatas, Spearows and the occasional Mankeys. In all the fights, Flair would pelt the Pokemon with Ember while Nidoran charged in with all the speed it could muster. Though a couple of times Nidoran ended up taking some glancing blows from Flair's Ember. However this was a perfect way to get their teamwork into sync which Ash jumped at. A team after all had be on the same wavelength and be able to discern each others intention as they attacked.

After at least 5 encounters which took less then 5 minutes each, the trio finally reached the cliff overlooking the Indigo Plateau. As they looked over it Ash couldn't help but say, "That is what we're aiming for. It isn't the end goal, but it's a mile stone to it." Both Flair and Nidoran nodded at this. After admiring the view for just a bit longer, Ash decided it was time to head back to Viridian. He wanted to look around Viridian, since whenever he visited with his mom, it was only for business and never for fun. With that, the trio started their trek down the mountain. They had a couple more encounters with the local Pokemon but nothing too taxing. Especially with Flair developing pyromania the more she used Ember. Ash was starting to get a bit worried with how Flair seemed content to release Embers from a far every time the duo entered battle. Nidoran already showed improvement from this morning. While he wasn't that fast, he was certainly quicker then the Rattatas they encountered. Though he occasionally quick the Mankeys as well who were subsequently knocked out in one hit. It spoke a lot about Nidoran's strength if he could knock out a Mankey in one hit.

When they reached the foot of the mountain, they started heading towards Viridian City. However a Pokemon caught Ash's eye. It was Nidoran(F). Taking out his Pokedex, he scanned it. "**Nidoran(F). Although not very combative, it will torment its foes with poison spikes if it is threatened in any way.**"

Turning to Flair and Nidoran, he nodded in the Nidoran(F)'s direction. Both understood the command. Nidoran moved to the side and released a Growl, attracting the attention of Nidoran(F) who turned it's head in Nidorans direction. Meanwhile, Flair opened it's mouth and Ember flew out towards the distracted Nidoran(F) hitting it full on. Nidoran, who saw Nidoran(F) get hit by the Ember took this chance to charge in with a Tackle.

It connected squarely with Nidoran(F)'s side and it was subsequently knocked out. Ash took this time to toss a Pokeball at the knocked out Nidoran(F).

"Alright! We caught a Nidoran(F)!" Both Flair and Nidoran let out cheers at this. "Come on. Let's get back to the Pokemon Center." As Ash started heading towards Viridian with both Flair and Nidoran, he paused mid step. Flair and Nidoran looked at their trainer and wondered why he stopped.

"Hm..." Ash turned to Nidoran. "Now that we caught a Nidoran(F), I guess I'll have to think up nickname for both of you huh? Don't want to mix up your names after all"

Nidoran looked happy at this while Flair seemed to nod at Ash's reasoning. "Well, let's get back to the Pokemon Center. I'm sure I'll think of something on the way back." With that, the trio resumed their trek back to Viridan again.

...

Entering the Pokemon Center, Ash moved to the counter where Nurse Joy was manning it. "Hello."

Nurse Joy looked up from her work and saw who it was. "Ah, it's you. Back already?"

Ash laughed sheepishly at this. "Yea. Just came from Route 22 after scaling the mountain." It was noon now that Ash thought about it and he was feeling hungry. "I'd like for my Pokemon to be healed and a meal for them please."

"Of course. Your Pokedex please."

Ash handed the Nurse Joy his Pokedex which gave off a beep once Nurse Joy did whatever she needed to do. Handing it back, she said, "They should be healed in half an hour. But since you wanted a meal for them as well, it'll probably take an hour."

"Okay, Thank you."

"The pleasures all mine."

Ash then turned towards the Dining Hall again. He was famished after that trek. Who would've thought that he'd catch 2 new Pokemon on his trek to see the Indigo Plateau? Ordering a quick lunch, Ash took his time eating. Now that he suddenly had 3 Pokemon 2 days into his journey, he would have to plan out different training plans for each. So far Flair showed an aptitude for long-range flame attacks, but Ash would have to supplement her with some physical attacks as well or at least devise a evasion regime for her. Meanwhile Nidoran(M) displayed great aptitude in physical attacks but lacked the speed to do it. That would be easily remedied with a speed training regime. The problem was Nidoran(F), since it was knocked out so quickly, he had no idea what type of training he should plan for it.

Sighing, he finished up his meal and headed towards the computer terminals provided by the Center. For now, he would look for information regarding the Pewter City Gym. Scrolling through the League website, he saw that it was a relatively new Gym leader going by the name of Brock who specialized in Rock-types. This was bad for him since he only had Flair a Fire-type and Nidoran(M) and Nidoran(F), both which were Poison-types.

Leaning back into his chair, he pondered how he would defeat Brock with his current Pokemon. He knew that if he could teach both Nidoran Double Kick, then he would stand a chance since Rock-types were weak to Fighting-type moves, but even if it was a Rock-type, it was still a Gym leaders Pokemon. No doubt they were trained to resist their weaknesses. Ash frowned some more at this.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when the PA system called for him to pick up his Pokemon from the front counter. Quickly logging off the terminal, he got up and headed to the front. When he arrived, the Nurse Joy was waiting with his Pokemon. Thanking her, Ash exited the Pokemon Center. Moving to the lot next to it, he released his Pokemon. Flair appeared spewing forth a small amount of flame while both Nidorans shook their heads to get rid of their disorientation.

"Hey Flair, Nidoran(M), Nidoran(F), how you feeling?"

Flair released another small stream of flames in front of her and let out an energetic 'Char!', while Nidoran(M) started running around him in circles. Nidoran(F) just tilted her head as it looked at Ash. Seeing the look, he introduced himself to her. It gave a nod after that.

Ash then turned to Nidoran(M). "Hey Nidoran, I finally thought up of a nickname for you." At this it looked to Ash expectantly. "Well I thought of what you would be in the future, and that was Nidoking, so how bout I name you 'King' in honor of what you'll be in the future?" Nidoran looked at Ash intensely then let out a cheer and started running around Ash in circles again. Ash then turned to Nidoran(F), "I hope you don't mind me nicknaming you 'Queen' then, in honor of what you'll be in the future too?"

Nidoran(F) tilted her head to the side before giving a nod. Ash smiled at this. All three of his Pokemon were now nicknamed. Turning to Flair and King, he called for their attention. "While you were going through the healing cycle I was planning out a training regime for both of you." Both Flair and King looked expectantly at what Ash thought up. Ash seeing the expectant looks only chuckled. "Well, Flair I noticed that you seemed to be distinctively leaning towards a Special Attacker where you focus on attacking from far away, so we'll get you started on learning more attacks like that but also a evasion regime. Since you're a Special Attacker, then no doubt you'll be weak in Physical attacks. So we'll work on getting your evasion up there where you can dodge all the attacks. As for you King, we'll be working on speed and defense. Since you already have so much Power, Endurance and Stamina." Both of his Pokemon nodded at this.

Turning his attention to Queen, he said, "As for you, I'm not exactly sure. I didn't really get a chance to see you in action yet. So we'll find out later okay?" Queen nodded at this. "Oh right. Lemme check your attacks." Whipping out his Pokedex, he scanned Queen and scrolled down to its known moves. "**This Nidoran(F) currently knows Tackle, Growl, Scratch and Tail Whip.**"

"Ohhh! You know quite a few attacks!" Here Queen puffed itself up, while Flair glared at it. "I guess we'll wait and see how you perform in battle before I make any final conclusions."

Putting his Pokedex away, Ash turned to his Pokemon. "Anyway, I was planning on going to check some stuff out, so if you don't mind can you enter your Pokeballs for now? I'll let you out again when we're out of town." His Pokemon all nodded and Ash returned them to their Pokeballs.

Ash then turned his head towards the map next to the Pokemon Center. He looked around for the PokeMart Area and saw that it was only 4 blocks away. Moving in it's direction, he went through the mental checklist of what he needed. A notebook, some colored pens, a badge case, some generic pokechow,maybe a book on how to prepare food for both himself and Pokemon and of course a camera. Opening his Pokedex, he checked how much he had left. All starting Trainers registered with the League were given a starting sum of ¥1000 and so far he had already used ¥70, ¥35 were used on healing, health check, and food for his Pokemon while the other ¥35 were used on his own food and his overnight stay in the Pokemon Center.

Ash guessed this was why most Trainers preferred camping. Two days into his journey and he had already gone through almost one-tenth of his starting sum. And considering what he was about to buy, it would dip even lower. Looks like he would be camping a lot more if he wanted to get through his journey.

Making his way into the market district, he quickly purchased the things he needed which caused a bigger dip in his funds. By the time he was done, he was left with a measly ¥325. He was definitely going to be camping a lot. However the stuff he bought was definitely needed. The notebook and pens would help him plan out his Pokemon's training regime and strategies he would think of. The food and badge case was self explanatory while the camera was to record how his journey advanced. This way, he would have memories of how far he came. The camera itself had enough memory for two thousand shots and if he changed the memory card, more could be taken. It was also waterproof and used technology similar to that of Pokeballs so that it would never run out of power. He also bought two memory cards, so he was good for at least six-thousand shots.

With that done, he made his way towards Route 2, which would then lead him to the Viridian Forest. At the exit of the city, he released his Pokemon once more. They appeared in flashes of light and turned to their Trainer with curiosity written on their faces.

"Hey Flair, King, Queen. Mind sticking a bit closer to each other? I want to have a photo commemorating us leaving Viridian City."

Understanding dawned on their faces and they quickly arranged themselves with the city behind them. Ash seeing them lining up moved into position. When he thought the angle was good, he snapped the photo. Moving the camera away from his eye's, Ash looked at the photo and smiled at how it turned out. On it showed King to the left, with Flair in the middle and Queen towards the right. The backdrop with Viridian City also made it look better.

"Alright!" Hanging the camera on his neck, he turned towards his Pokemon. "You ready to go?"

He received shouts of approval. "In that case, let's go!"

Before he could even take a step however, a car pulled up right next to him. Screeching to a halt, Ash waved away the dust while coughing. When the dust did dissipate Ash was greeted to a sight he definitely did not expect to see.

Sitting atop the car in front of him was his childhood friend Gary with a smirk on his face and piled behind him were... cheerleaders...?

"Hello Ashy-boy." Gary greeted with the smirk still on his face.

Ash didn't know what to say to such an entrance so he just said, "Hey Gary...?"

"So I heard from gramps that you set out earlier then all of us other. Imagine my surprise when _you_ of all people started early. I'm amazed you didn't oversleep you know."

Ash growled at this. Gary continued, heedless of the looks he was drawing from the group in front of him. "So I thought I had to catch up quickly, but that pesky storm delayed me for a bit. I had resigned myself to you being a couple of steps ahead of me for a bit, but imagine my surprise when I saw you here. I'd have thought you'd at least be in the Viridian Forest by now. I guess you've spent a lot of your time goofing off huh Ashy-boy? How about a Pokemon Battle huh?"

Ash bit out, "You're on. Rules?"

Gary maintained that smirk of his while looking at the Pokemon behind Ash. "Hm. Since you have three Pokemon, how about a three on three?"

"Fine. Let's go." With that the group moved off the road.

When they found an area with enough room Gary said, "Well, since I challenged you, it's common courtesy for me to release my first Pokemon. Go Rattata!" Tossing a Pokeball into the air, a Rattata appeared in a flash of light.

"Hmph, Queen." Hearing his command, Queen moved forward.

"Heh...what a presumptuous name." Turning to his group of cheerleaders he asked, "Would one of you mind refereeing?"

The group debated a bit and one of them stepped forward. Bringing an arm into the air, she said, "This match is a three on three battle between Gary Oak and Ash Ketchum! This battle will be over when whoever has three Pokemon unable to battle! Switches are allowed! Begin!" With that she brought her arm down.

Immediately Ash shouted out, "Queen! Start off with a Tackle followed by a Tail Whip!"

Hearing Ash's command, it charged forward.

Gary who heard as well issued his own ordered, "Use Quick Attack followed up by a Tail Whip of your own!"

"Kuh. Queen, use Growl! Then Tackle it!" Ash countered.

As the two Pokemon almost met, Queen let out a Growl, causing Rattata to freeze in momentary fear which was all the time needed Queen needed to hit it with a Tackle.

"Good!" Ash shouted, "Now use Scratch!"

Hearing the order, Queen brought her claws up and started scratching the downed Rattata. When she was done, the Rattata was knocked out.

The cheerleader called out, "Rattata is unable to battle! Trainer Gary, please release your next Pokemon!"

As she said that the rest of the group of cheerleaders wailed out 'Nooooo! Gary can't lose!'

Gary let out a "Tch" before returning his Rattata. "Whatever, that was most likely luck! Go Spearow!"

"A Spearow huh... Queen return for now!" Ash turned to Flair. "You're up."

Flair puffed out her chest and moved forward to replace Queen.

The cheerleader once more brought her arm up. "The second round will now begin! Spearow vs. Charmander! Begin!" She brought her hand down once more.

Ash didn't even need to give Flair a command. The moment 'Begin!' was said, she had already started launching Ember at the air-borne Spearow.

Gary didn't even get a chance to issue a command before his Spearow was downed and knocked out.

Ash could only stare and when Flair turned to him, he could only say, "Good Job?" Flair let out a happy 'Char' at the praise.

Gary and his group of cheerleaders were shocked. His Pokemon was knocked out before he could even issue an order. Eventually the referee cheerleader snapped out of her stupor and said shakily. "S-Spearow is unable to battle. Trainer Gary, your next Pokemon?"

This seemed to bring Gary out of his own stupor. Quickly recalling his Spearow, he brought out his final Pokemon. "Go Squirtle! Don't you dare lose!"

Ash turned to Flair and said, "Flair, Switch. Let's give King a turn."

Flair nodded at this and returned to his side next to Queen while King moved forward.

The cheerleader ref moved her arm up once more. "The last round will now begin! Squirtle vs. Nidoran(M)! Begin!" She brought her arm down.

Gary immediately cried out, "Use Bubble! Don't let it get close to you!"

It immediately complied with it's trainers orders and started releasing bubbles from it mouth towards King.

Ash cried out, "Dodge! And then use Tackle!"

Hearing Ash's command it moved to the side and started charging towards Squirtle.

Gary seeing King move out of the way cried out, "Dodge it, then use Tail Whip and follow it up with Bubble!"

Ash muttered, "Too slow.", He then shouted out, "King! Use Growl to stop it from dodging! Then use Tackle!"

King stopped his charge and let out a Growl, causing the Squirtle to freeze up. King capitalized on the window and hit it with a Tackle, instantly knocking it out due to the power behind King's Tackle.

Gary could only stare in shock as his Squirtle was knocked out with seemingly ease. Grinding his teeth together he brought up Squirtle's Pokeball and said, "Return!"

This seemed to bring the referee out of her shock. "W-Winner Ash Ketchum!"

Gary moved up to Ash. "You got lucky Ashy-boy. Next time it won't happen again." With that, he and his cheerleader troupe moved to the car that they used and headed back towards Viridian City.

Ash smiled to himself for winning over Gary. That would teach him. Turning to his Pokemon he congratulated them. "Haha! Good job Team! We sure showed him!"

His Pokemon all puffed up their chests in pride. "Are any of you tired from the battle? If so you can rest in your ball."

When the three of them shook their heads, he smiled. "In that case, let's go! After we get out of the Viridian Forest, we'll be in Pewter City where our first Gym battle awaits!"

His Pokemon let out cheers at this. With that, they entered Viridian Forest.

...

After they had entered the forest, they had gotten lost almost immediately. Almost everywhere they looked the place looked the same. Ash already had to stop Flair from burning down the whole forest to get out at least twice. To make matters worse, they had encountered a multitude of Caterpies, Weedles, Metapods, Kakunas and the occasional Pidgey. It didn't make things easier when Bug Catchers would pop out of nowhere demanding battles which Flair loved. Considering she kept frying the bugs, it was to be expected. King and Queen just sat out while occasional battling. King was working on its speed by constantly running around the group while Queen was content to move at a steady pace as Ash still hadn't devised a training regime for her yet. Though Flair was happily dodging all the String Shots and Poison Stings sent her way.

Eventually it got dark and Ash decided to set up camp near a clearing. Making a campfire like the times he had done when he was camping with his mom. He got to work making a basic soup for himself while pouring out the Poke-chow he had bought at the PokeMart. Setting out three-portions he laid them at each of his Pokemons feet. Both King and Queen dug in happily while Flair tried one and made a face, but continued eating. It was probably because her breakfast this morning had been specifically made for fire-types and wasn't used to the one for all types.

As Ash waited for his soup to finish. He bought out the book he had on creating Poke-chow. Flipping to the beginning, he started reading.

He got so into reading that he didn't stop until he noticed the high pitched sound coming from his soup. Quickly putting his book down, he pulled the lid off the dutch oven and smelled the soup. While it didn't smell as good as the ones mom made. It still smelled good. Pouring himself a plate. He looked towards his Pokemon who were watching him. Guessing their thoughts, he asked, "You want some?"

They happily nodded. Grabbing some more plates from his bag, he poured each of them a portion and laid it in front of them. "Dig in." After saying that, they happily started lapping at it.

Ash took a spoon and slowly started eating his while reading the book he had dropped. It was really interesting. Most of this was surprisingly easy to make. All he had to do was find the right berries, boil them, followed by mashing them into fine paste. From there all he had to do was shape them and then let them bask in the sun until they were dry and hard. There was even a helpful description of what kind of berries were suited to different-types. Like how hot or spicy foods were favorites for Fire-types because it stimulated their nerves.

There was also a section in it devoted to Pokeblocks or Poffins that were created in Hoenn and Sinnoh, though there were different process to making them. Eventually when he finished his soup along with his Pokemon, he quickly rinsed them with water. Until he found a stream, he would have to be careful with the way he used his water. Placing his utensils back into his back, he pulled out his sleeping bag. Ash marveled once more at the technology placed into creating these travel bags. They incorporated part of the Pokeball storage technology into it's interior. While it couldn't store too much, it had enough room to store cooking utensils, a sleeping bag, some perishable foods and of course a few jars to hold berries. The notebook, pens and book he had bought were placed in the outer section of the bag which was just a normal bag without the Pokeball storage technology incorporated.

Rolling out his sleeping bag, Ash got in and turned to his Pokemon. "Well, looks like our 2nd day on our journey is drawing to a close."

They chirped tiredly in response. They moved towards Ash's sleeping bag and when they were close enough, they laid down and curled into themselves before slowly drifting off. Ash watched this and eventually let out a yawn. "W-well, good night..."

...

Ash woke up to the sound of chirping coming from somewhere in the forest and the buzz of Pokemon waking up and looking for food. Groggily getting up, he noticed that sometime during the night, Flair had curled up on top of his sleeping bag while King and Queen were cuddling each other towards his right.

Gently moving Flair out of the way, Ash got out of his sleeping bag and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Moving over to his bag, he took out his cooking utensils and got to work on making breakfast.

Thirty minutes later and Ash was eating his breakfast with his Pokemon after he had woken them up.

"Alright, Team. Today we'll spend some time looking for the exit of his place and while we do, we'll start on our training regimes. King will work on his speed again. Queen you'll work on speed as well seeing as how most of your attacks require you get up close, but also add some power training. Flair will work on target practice from both her mouth and tail. If you can improve by the end of today, I'll see about getting you to learn a new move or two."

His Pokemon let out cheers at this.

"Alright King, I'll find some rocks and tie them to your legs. You'll move as fast as you can while dragging them along. Queen will do the same except she'll have lighter rocks, but will have to keep dashing instead of running. Flair, for now, I'll toss some leaves into the air and you'll snipe them out of the air with Ember. Okay?"

They all nodded.

As the group moved through the forest looking for the exit. Both King and Queen were running and dashing as fast as they could respectively, while Flair was trying her best to snipe out the bundle of 10 leaves Ash would toss up every now and then with her Ember. Though she missed quite a few since the wind carried the leaves around erratically. That was to be expected thought. He wanted Flair to get used to predicting where the targets would go. Ash couldn't see if King and Queen had improved any but judging from how King was moving at the same pace as when he had caught him, he must've improved a bit. Queen on the other hand seemed to be suffering. It didn't look like she was used to repeatedly dashing with rocks tied to her legs.

Of course, they encountered a few wild Caterpie and Weedle which were taken down with ease from Flair.

It wasn't until they made it into a clearing with a cottage that they paused. In front of him was a boy in some sort of ornate armor having breakfast. Or at least Ash thought it was, the sun didn't look like it was directly above him yet.

The boy seeing Ash step into the clearing for up from his seat in front of a campfire.

"Halt! What is your name Trainer and where do you hail from?"

Ash tilted his head at the way he spoke but internally shrugged. "I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town."

"I see. How about a battle?" As he said that, he withdrew a Pokeball from his breastplate.

"Sure?"

"In that case! Go Metapod!"

Ash resisted the urge to slap his face in frustration. Really a Metapod as a starting Pokemon? Turning to Flair he asked, "Want to do the honors?"

Flair moved up after Ash said that.

"Ready?" the boy asked.

Ash nodded. "In that case, Begin!" After saying that, he quickly followed up with an order. "Metapod, Harden!"

Ash resisted the urge to groan and just let Flair do her thing. Which she gladly did by pelting the immobile Metapod with her Ember. The poor Arthropod was knocked out instantly despite it using Harden. Making itself harder didn't make it immune to flames.

The boy returned his Pokemon and sent out his next one. "Go Pinsir!"

Ash flipped open his Pokedex at this. "**Pinsir. It grips prey with its powerful pincers and will not let go until the prey is torn in half.**"

Ash whistled at this. That sounded like a dangerous Pokemon. "Alright Flair, make sure to stay awake from it's pincers. Do what you do best!"

As if acknowledging the order, Flair immediately backed up a bit while swinging her tail around and releasing Ember from it. Ash couldn't help but think that she was already adding a flair to her own attacks like her namesake.

It seemed that despite the Pokedex's fearsome description of it, the Pinsir was surprisingly weak. It couldn't do anything as it was repeatedly pelted with Embers from Flair. Soon enough it was knocked out. The boy returned it and moved up to Ash.

"That was truly a great battle! I learned a lot from it and for that I thank you for this experience!"

"Uhh, Okay?"

"Though if I may ask, are all Pallet Trainers this strong?"

"...I don't know since I just started my journey two days ago and I haven't encountered any other Pallet Trainers besides one."

"I see. Do you know where that trainer may be? I wish to challenge him to gauge the skill level of trainers from Pallet."

"Um... he should be passing through some time today in a car."

"I see...in that case I shall wait for him at the exit of the forest!"

"Eh? You know the exit to this forest?"

"Of course! This place is merely my training grounds. I am originally from Pewter City!"

"Ah! In that case can you point me towards the exit? I seem to be lost."

"Understandable. This place is easy to get lost. Just continue walking straight for half a day and you should be at the exit of Viridian Forest." Pointing in a direction Ash nodded in thanks.

"Thank you...?"

"You may call me Samurai."

"I see, thank you Samurai."

"You're welcome. Now farewell!" With that he waved as Ash made his way out of the clearing in the direction of the exit he was pointed in.

Once they were a out of sight of the clearing he turned towards his Pokemon as they walked. "Look's like we'll be getting out of this forest by this evening if we're quick."

Flair, King and Queen chirped in response. "Well let's just speed up a bit don't we? I don't want to stay another night in this forest. Especially since we could get lost again." His Pokemon nodded at this and they all sped up.

As they made their way through the forest, they encountered more wild Pokemon which were easily dispatched by the handicapped King and Queen. Flair decided to stay out since Ash was tossing more leaves into the air and she was trying to snipe them out of the air. Besides, she was sure King and Queen could handle it.

They continued walking in a straight line until it was lunch time where they took a break. Ash was satisfied with Flairs accuracy for now and got to work on teaching her how to use SmokeScreen. The theory was that instead of releasing the flames stored in her belly, she instead released the smoke that the flames emitted. She could only get out a small whiff of smoke but that was to be expected, it wasn't exactly a move that was easily learned since he doubted she was used to discharging smoke.

King had shown a marked improvement on his speed, so Ash got to teaching him Focus Energy. Since he already had so much power, by augmenting it with Focus Energy, he was sure King could take out even the toughest of foes. As for Queen, she had the speed that King lacked, but she lacked the power that King had. So he decided to try and teach her Poison Sting. It would gradually weaken her foe, so all he had to do was change her regime to focus on endurance and stamina instead of speed and power. Power which she was seemingly unsuited for.

After that, they continued on their way battling the occasional trainers while using their newly learned moves on the wild Pokemon they encountered. Ash made a mental note to test using Smokescreen and Ember in conjunction with each other after watching Flair mess up her Smokescreen. She had accidentally lit up the smoke she released from her mouth and a small bang was heard from it. That had perked Ash to a possible attack on a large scale. He also had to think of teaching King Double Kick since just tackling didn't seem to cut it anymore. It was way too telegraphed since he always moved in a straight line. With Double Kick, he could change directions twice adding a whole new level of versatility to it. Add in Focus Energy and you had a monster in the making.

Queen, Ash was unsure about. She displayed good speed, but didn't seem to like moving into close combat. So perhaps she preferred the same type of attacking as Flair? If that was the case, he would have to teach her a different skill set then he had originally planned after his battle with Gary. He would look into his Pokedex later to see what attacks he could possibly teach her.

By the time it was approaching dusk, Ash could already see the treeline thinning. No doubt they were almost out of the forest and they would soon be at Pewter City.

Sure enough they soon found themselves out of the forest and off a bit away was the night lights of Pewter City.

"Alright! We're almost there! Come on!" With that the group started jogging towards the city.

...

Arriving at the entrance of the city, Ash couldn't help but smile. "Hehe, looks like another picture is in order huh?"

He was greeted to a chorus of 'Chars' and 'Nidos'. Smiling to himself he grabbed the camera hanging on his neck and moved back a bit so that he could capture his Pokemon with the city as the backdrop. Snapping the picture, he was satisfied with it. Placing his camera back on his neck he turned to his Pokemon. "Come on. Let's get to the Pokemon Center and get some dinner." Flair, King and Queen let out affirmative cries.

Moving into the city, Ash couldn't help but marvel at the sights around him. It seemed he had come in during a busy time as the people in the city seemed to doing some sort preparation for a festival. Curious he moved to ask a passerby what was going on.

"Excuse me? But what exactly is going on with all these preparations?"

The man turned to Ash. "Hm? You're not from around here are you?"

Ash nodded. "Yea, I just came to the city a while ago."

The man nodded. "It's to be expected, you wouldn't know what's going on. Well the city is preparing a city-wide festival for it's 500th anniversary since it was built which is a week away. It'll be quite hectic with all the events going on, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it if you're still here."

"Ah. I see thank you for your time."

"The pleasures all mine lad." With that the man walked off.

Turning to his Pokemon, he gestured them to come along. As they moved off the busy street, Ash consulted the map that was nearby. "Hm, The Pokemon Center is 30 minutes away." Turning to his Pokemon he asked, "Do you mind going into your ball? Since it's late, and people here are quite busy you might get separated if we're not careful." King and Queen nodded, so he returned them to their balls. Flair just hopped onto his jacket and brought herself to hang on his shoulder.

"Well, let's get going shall we?" Flair gave an affirmative 'Char' and Ash started heading in the direction of the Pokemon Center.

As they did, they passed many shops getting ready for the festival. Posters were hung on the walls of buildings, ornaments were hung on street lamps and shops were being decorated with all sorts of decor.

By the time Ash reached the Pokemon Center, he had been dazzled by all the attractions the city was bringing up. In Pallet, festivals weren't this big. This cemented Ash's decision to stay for the festival. He really wanted to see what it was like.

Walking into the Pokemon Center, Ash moved to the front desk and grabbed a tray for holding Pokeballs. Placing Charmander in the center and King and Queen's Pokeball to the sides, he placed it on the counter. "Hi, I'd like for my Pokemon to go through a Healing cycle and some food for them if you don't mind."

The Nurse Joy who had been working behind the counter nodded. "Very well, your Pokedex?"

Ash passed his Pokedex over the counter where a beep was heard before it was returned to him. "Please return in an hour."

Ash nodded and moved towards the dining hall, intent on getting some dinner for himself. Stepping into the Dining Hall, he made a beeline for the counter and ordered some burgers. Paying with his Pokedex again, he brought his food to an empty table by the window. Looking out into the night life of Pewter City, he saw that it was still bustling despite the time. Ash smiled to himself, he guessed that the world was far larger than he had thought. If this was Pallet, the whole place would be asleep by now, yet just past the windows, people were milling about as if they just woke up.

Tearing his eyes away from the window, he got to devouring his meal. At least until he heard the phantom voice of his mom telling him to watch his manners. That caused him to eat more sedately. Bringing out his Pokedex, he checked the amount he had left. His eyes bugged out and he started choking on his food when he saw the amount. Smacking his chest, he gradually calmed down and took a sip of water.

It seemed that in a day and a half he managed to go from his measly ¥325 to a whooping ¥1109. Frowning at how he gotten so much, his eyes widened in recognition when he remembered that the there was a reward system based on the trainers you defeated. You received a percentage of the money that the trainer you defeated had from the League. This way trainers could survive without jobs and was a sort of unofficial ranking system. The more money a trainer had meant the higher their skill level was, but that didn't necessarily mean it was true so it was unofficial for a reason.

Well it didn't really matter to Ash, it just meant he secured more funds for his journey and this time he should be more careful with spending it. Unless he decided to fight every trainer he came across. While tempting would probably just make him out to be a bully. Shrugging, he scrolled the Nidoran(F)'s pokdex entry and started going through the list of available moves it could learn. Since she favored speed and perhaps ranged attacks, he could try and teaching her Water Pulse which would come in handy during the Gym Battle, but he wasn't sure he would be able to learn it in time.

As he pondered this in front of the window, he didn't know that time passed real quickly and when he was shaken out his stupor, it was due to the announcement calling him to the front desk because his Pokemon were done. Getting up, he tossed the trash through the trash cans lid while placing the tray on the ledge above the trash can.

Walking up to the front counter the Nurse Joy smiled and handed him Flair and the Pokeballs for King and Queen. Bowing her head she said, "Thank you and please come again."

"Er... I'd like to stay for the night. Is a room open?"

"Oh..? Oh! Yes. A room is open. Your Pokedex?"

Handing it over again. A beep was heard before it was returned with a Card Key. "Thank you."

"The pleasure's all mine."

With that Ash, walked towards the back where the trainer rooms were located with Flair hanging on his shoulder. Entering the room, he released King and Queen from their Pokeballs. "Hey. How you guys doing?"

Both gave happy chirps. Ash smiled. "Well Team, tomorrow we're going to challenge our first Gym Battle."

All his Pokemon perked up at this. "That's right. If we win tomorrow, we'll have earned out first badge. It'll be a small step forward to our end goal, but it's still a milestone. So you ready?!"

Again his Pokemon gave affirmative chirps. Ash continued. "To be honest though, I don't think we can win.", his Pokemon looked scandalized at this. Ash seeing their looks held up his hand to forestall any outburst. "Don't get me wrong. It's not that I think you're weak or anything like that. In fact I'd like to think you're all extremely strong, but this is a Gym Leader's Pokemon. Their one step below the Elite Four who are a step below the Champion. We just started our journey 3 days ago. No matter how much we trained in that time, it'll be extremely hard to match up to a Gym Leader's Pokemon in that time."

His Pokemon looked contemplative at this. Ash smiled again. "But that doesn't mean we won't try our hardest right?!"

This time, his Pokemon let out loud cries in acknowledgement. "Heh, I knew I could count on you guys. Let's go to sleep for now eh?"

His Pokemon all nodded and they all piled onto the top portion of the bunk bed while Ash took the one below. Soon enough the group drifted off into sleep.

...

Waking up with the sun hitting his face, Ash groggily looked at the time. Seeing that it was only 7 AM, he turned around and went back to sleep.

When he woke up again, it was because Flair was poking at him. Turning to look at her, he mumbled, "What is it?"

"Char char!" Flair pointed at the time.

Turning towards it he saw that only 30 minutes had passed since he had gone back to sleep. "It's only 7:30. Lemme get some more sleep." Turning around once more, Ash started dozing off again.

Flair huffed and called for King and Queen's help. They were both watching their trainer go back to sleep.

"Cha char! Char charr char! (_Come on! We have to wake up our trainer!)_"

"Nido? (_How?_)"

"Ch cha char! (_The curtains!_)"

Understanding the gist of the plan, both King and Queen moved to open the curtains wider, while Flair moved to pull the blanket off Ash.

When Ash felt his blanket being tugged away, he tried pulling back but it just kept being pulled away. When he turned around, he was not expecting to be hit full in the face with sunlight. "Gah! It's too bright!"

Bringing a hand up to his face, he blocked the sunlight streaming into his eyes. He then glared at his Pokemon. "Alright! I'm up! You happy now?"

His Pokemon nodded. Ash just grumbled and moved towards the showers.

After he emerged he moved towards the door after grabbing his bag from where he placed it. "Come on. Let's go get some breakfast." Flair, King and Queen happily followed after Ash.

Walking into the Dining Hall, Ash quickly ordered breakfast for himself and his Pokemon. Choosing a table in the corner, he place the food on the table and watched as Flair took a seat and started eating from her plate while King and Queen hopped from the floor to the seats then onto the table and started eating their own. Ash himself sat down and started eating his own. As he did, he looked out the window next to his seat.

He watched as the people of the city were all heading out of their homes to open up their shops or were going to work in a different part of the city. He stayed like that until his Pokemon finished their own breakfast. When they did, he recalled them. Since he would be heading to the Gym and he would be traversing the busy city, he didn't want to risk them being separated from him.

As he exited the Pokemon Center, he returned the Card Key to the Nurse Joy at the front who smiled and said, "Please come again!" which was quickly becoming something that Ash thought was their call sign. He chalked it up to be one those mysteries that would never be solved like the existence of Joy and Jenny family. There was no way each daughter could be that identical.

Shaking his head, he consulted the map outside the Pokemon Center. It seemed that the Pewter City Gym was located near the outskirts of the city. Walking in the direction that the map had pointed to, Ash looked around him as he went on his way. This was the 2nd city he had been to and he was finding new things to look at everywhere he turned.

By the time he reached the Gym, his head was swimming with all the new things he had only seen in TV whenever they were advertised. Shaking his head, he stepped in front of the double doors and pushed it open. The opened doors illuminated the dark room inside. Ash frowned when he couldn't see inside the blackness that was enveloping the interior. When he thought the Gym was closed and prepared to leave he was stopped when he heard some call.

"Halt! Who goes there?"

Ash blinked at the way whoever was speaking. Eventually he answered, "Er... Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town. I'm here for a Gym Battle."

"Ah. I see a challenger, is it." After saying that, the lights of the Gym came on and he was greeted to the sight of a rocky arena in front of him while there was a raised balcony on both sides and sitting atop the rocky arena on a boulder was the Gym Leader Brock that Ash recognized from his photo on the League website.

Brock hopped down from the boulder and moved towards Ash. "So you are a challenger right?"

Ash blinked, then nodded.

"I see..." Brock then shouted out, "Forrest!"

From behind the Gym, a boy younger then Ash entered. "Yea? What is it brother?"

"We have a challenger!"

"Ah. I see, I'm going to referee?"

"Yea!"

Turning back to Ash, Brock said, "This will be a two on two Pokemon battle. Whoever can knock out each others Pokemon first is the winner. Understand?"

Ash nodded again. "Good."

Brock then headed towards the far side of the Gym where he saw a Square was located. Looking to his side, he saw a similar one. He guessed this was the challenger box. Stepping onto it, he saw Brock's younger brother Forrest donning a referee uniform complete with red and green flag. Stepping up onto a raised balcony near the arena he shouted out, "This is an official Gym Battle between Challenger Ash Ketchum of Pallet and Gym Leader Brock of Pewter! This will be a two on two knock out battle! The first one to have two Pokemon knocked out will be the loser! Trainers prepare your Pokemon!"

Ash contemplated which Pokemon to send out. Of the available three he had, he could only use two. He was shaken out of his thoughts when Brock called out, "Since you're the challenger, I'll release my Pokemon first! Go Geodude!"

Ash frowned. Well that was expected, this was a Rock-type gym after all, but he didn't have any Pokemon that had a type-advantage over it. Shaking his head he released his own Pokemon. If he didn't have a type-advantage, then he could only hope to overwhelm it with pure power. "Go King!"

His Nidoran(M) appeared in a flash on the arena. It looked around for a bit, but when he saw the Geodude in front of him and the area they were in, he immediately got into position. It knew it was in the Gym battle it had been told about, so it had to focus.

Forrest seeing both Pokemon ready raised both hands holding the flags. "The battle between Geodude vs. Nidoran(M) will now...Begin!" As he shouted that he crossed his arms together.

Ash immediately shouted out, "Use Tackle!"

King immediately complied and charged at the Geodude.

Brock countered with his own move, "Use Defense Curl Geodude!"

Geodude braced into a ball after hearing the command. Ash frowned at this. Why would Brock decide to take the hit? Surely he could've dodged? Or was he confident that his Geodude could take Kings Tackle?

Either way was fine, he would just have to see for himself. "Tackle it! And be prepared for a counter attack!"

As King charged at the stationary Geodude, Ash kept an eye on Brock expecting him to issue a new order. However when King was inches from connecting and Brock still didn't give the order he turned his eyes back towards the arena expecting King to send the Geodude flying. Which was why he was surprised when instead of being sent flying, King merely pushed the Geodude along.

It was around this time that Brock issued his second command. "Good! Now grab it and let it taste your own Tackle!"

Geodude hearing the order unfurled the arms from around itself and grabbed hold on King who was still pushing. It then Tackled the restrained King and sent it flying back towards Ash.

Ash had been so stunned by the Geodude enduring the initial hit that he didn't even react until King was sent flying back towards him. Cursing himself for being surprised despite saying to himself this was to be expected he focused once more on the match. "King you okay?!" he called to the downed Nidoran(M).

King righted itself and gave an affirmative growl. Ash let out a relieved sigh at this before focused on the match again. It seemed Geodude lived up to its type.

He then gave his next order, "Alright, it seems the Geodude lives up to type. If a normal Tackle doesn't work, then we'll just use a more focused one! For now try and find an opening!"

King hearing this once more charged at Geodude. Brock ordered, "Defense Curl again!"

Ash grit his teeth at this. It seemed Brock wanted to out last his Pokemon which given the fact that Geodude was a Rock-type was a very possible outcome.

"Grr... King circle around it and use Tackle from behind!"

As King moved behind Geodude, Brock called out, "Tackle behind you, Geodude!"

Hearing the order, Geodude immediately unfurled itself again and moved to execute a backwards Tackle. Ash watched this and had a flash of inspiration.

"King! Dodge it and then use Tail Whip to smack it backwards!"

Hearing his master's order, he side-stepped the Geodude heading its way and used a Tail Whip to send it flying backwards even faster. It was stopped though when it hit the boulder that was behind King when it circled behind him.

Ash shouted out, "Good! Now end this! Use Growl followed by Focus Tackle!"

King released a loud Growl that caused Geodude to freeze itself from getting itself out of the boulder. That was all the time King needed to use Focus Energy and used it in conjunction with a tackle to the unguarded Geodudes back.

The boulder Geodude was buried in shattered from the force applied to it and Geodude was sent flying out of the arena. It came to a halt near Forrest who looked at it and said, "Geodude is unable to battle! The winner is Nidoran(M)! Gym Leader Brock, your next Pokemon?"

As Brock returned his Geodude, Ash called out, "Nice job King!"

King looked happy at the praise, but turned its attention back to Brock when he brought out a Pokeball.

"I must admit, I did not expect you to win against my Geodude, but I guess it was my fault for not taking you seriously. However don't celebrate just yet! Go Onix!" He shouted as he threw the ball into the air.

And out appeared an Onix that was gigantic compared to King. Ash's jaw dropped. Quickly bringing out his Pokedex, he scanned it. "**Onix, the Rock Snake Pokémon. By twisting its large and powerful body, Onix can quickly bore through the ground at fifty miles per hour.**"

Gripping his Pokede, Ash realized just how outclassed he was. However he quickly shook those thoughts away. "King you ready? This will be a tough one!"

King who had been looking up at Onix shook it heads and let out a battle cry. Ash smiled at this. It seemed King wasn't intimidated by its appearance. Turning to the referee, he gave a nod.

This was Forrest's cue to speak again. "The second round between Gym Leader Brock's Onix against Challenger Ash's Nidoran(M) will now...Begin!" Crossing his flags once more.

Ash immediately called out, "There's no point in using tricks! Use Focus Tackle!"

Acknowledging his order, King immediately started focusing its energy before charging at Onix.

Brock just said, "Tail Whip."

Onix immediately swept it's tail at the charging King who couldn't dodge in time and was sent flying back towards Ash. It landed in a heap in front of him.

"King! Are you okay?"

"N-Nido!" it cried as it got up.

"Sorry for saying this, but we can only hope to use Focus Tackle! You up for it?"

"Nido!" it cried affirmatively.

"In that case, try and find an opening and use Focus Tackle!"

So repeated the process of King trying to use Focus Tackle while Onix just kept sweeping it away with its tail. Eventually Brock had enough. "That's enough Onix. End it with Bind!"

With that Onix wrapped itself around the diminutive King and squeezed.

"Nido!"

"King!"

Both King and Ash cried out. Ash was about to return King to his Pokeball, but it quickly cried out. "N-Nido!" while shaking its head. Ash could only look at it shaking his head and grit his teeth, before he put the Pokeball down.

Brock seeing this couldn't help but comment. "As a trainer, you're expected to decide whether a Pokemon should be allowed to continue or not regardless of what the Pokemon wants. Yet you're deferring to you're Pokemon? Are you not worried about what might happen to it?"

Ash glared at Brock as he said that. "I don't want it to be hurt either! But if I return it now, it'll be the same as saying I think he's weak! I won't let it think that of itself!"

Brock remained silent and turned his attention back to the battle before saying, "It's over."

As he said that Nidoran let out one last squeal. However what surprised them was Onix letting a sound of pain as well. It promptly dropped Nidoran(M) where Ash quickly ran up to it.

Forrest took this time to declare the winner. "Nidoran(M) is unable to battle! The winner of this round is Onix!"

"Are you okay King?"

It opened an eye and let out a weak "N-nido."

"Don't worry you did a good job, you deserve a nice rest."

As Ash moved back to the challengers box with King in his arms, he couldn't help but notice the two hoof marks on Onix. "heh, did you learn Double Kick in that situation?"

King let out a weak sound that sounded like a 'yes'.

Putting it down to observe next to him, he brought out his next Pokemon. "Go Flair!"

Flair appeared in a flash of light and landed a top of boulder. It took a moment to survey the area before it's eyes landed on the Onix in front of it before turning to it's trainers and seeing Ash looking grim and King beaten next to him. It immediately understood the situation and let out a growl with a stream of flames.

Forrest seeing Ash's last Pokemon nodded. "The third and final match between Gym Leader Brock's Onix vs. Challenger Ash's Charmander will now... begin!" bringing his arms down one last time.

ash immediately shouted out, "Pelt it with Ember! Don't let it get close!"

Flair immediately swept her tail in a wide arc towards Onix and released a large amount of Ember.

However Brock ordered, "Harden. Followed up with Bind!"

Onix grew rigid and endured the pelts of Ember before moving towards Flair hoping to bind it.

"Dodge it and continue to use Ember!"

Flair hopped around the gigantic arena while dodging the Onix on her tail and shooting Ember's out of her tail with a flourish every time.

As the process repeated itself over and over again Ash tried to think up a plan. Right now his Pokemon were limited in their skill set but he had confidence that there was a way for him to win. However he needed a plan quickly before Flair tired herself out.

As he watched Flair hop around releasing Ember every time she paused, he watched as the flames flew in an arc. As he watched the Embers fly, he grew a grin. "Flair use SmokeScreen!"

Flair glanced at Ash and when she saw the grin complied. Releasing Black smoke into the arena, everything in front of him was obscured. "Alright! Now use Ember! This time do it like you're shooting a Flying-type!"

Ash didn't know if she could see, but Ash didn't need her to aim. Just shoot. His thoughts were answered when he saw flame pellets fly upwards before impacting something in the smoke as seen by the red glowing flames through the smoke.

Following that a roar was heard from the smoke. "Good! Keep it up! Don't let it get a chance to counter attack!"

After he said that, the smoke was lit up Ember flying in every direction. Ash couldn't see what was going on due to the smoke but he sure could hear the Onix's cries of pain.

By the time the smoke cleared, it revealed a Onix that was badly burned from all the Embers it had taken while Flair was tired from releasing so many Embers in quick succession.

Eventually the Onix fell on it's side. All was silent before Forrest declared, "Onix is unable to battle! The winner is Charmander! Therefore the winner of this Gym Battle is Ash Ketchum of Pallet!"

Ash was frozen along with King but he quickly ran up to Flair.

"Alright Flair, you did it!"

Flair stood frozen in front of the Onix before it quickly hugged Ash. Ash hugged her back before walking back over to King who was still resting in the challenger box.

Brock moved forward from his challenger box towards Onix. When he was close enough he said, "You did good Onix, you can stop acting now."

With that Onix immediately got up from its downed state, causing Ash to look at it in surprise along with Flair and King.

Brock then moved towards Ash. "I must say. I'm surprised you actually managed to win. I had expected you to lose due to how inexperienced you were, but I guess that wasn't the case huh?"

"E-eh? How is Onix already up? Didn't Flair knock it out?"

Brock laughed at this. "Haha! That's funny. All Gym Pokemon are trained to adjust themselves to the challengers level. If they fought at full power, no trainers would ever get a badge you know."

"Eh? So you're saying that wasn't Onix's full strength?"

"Of course. If Onix used it's full strength, you would already have lost."

"Hey! I'm sure it wouldn't have made that much of a difference!"

"Oh? You think so? Onix, DragonBreath!"

A blue beam of energy flew right past Ash and impacted the wall behind him.

"Eh?" Glancing to his right, he looked at the trench that the attack had made as it flew past him.

"Still think it wouldn't have made a difference?"

Ash shook his head.

"Haha, don't be so stiff I was just showing you not the underestimate the Gym Leaders is all. Even if we're young or appear foolish, we're still trainers certified by the League to run the Gym you know."

Ash nodded at this.

"Anyway, I present you the Boulder Badge for defeating me in battle." Saying that he handed Ash a grey badge in the shape of an octagon.

Grasping the badge he looked up at Brock and said, "But I didn't win against you at full strength."

"Hahaha. Kid didn't I just say that if Onix fought at full strength, you would've lost immediately? Oh no. The reason you're getting the badge is because you managed to beat me despite a level playing field. This speaks highly of your potential, so you earned the badge."

"Erm, Thank you?"

"Don't worry about it kid. I'm expecting great things from you now!"

"Yes!"

"Oh by the way. This was newly implemented by the League but since you won, you're suppose to get a TM specific to the gym. So here, TM39 contains Rock Tomb."

Handing over the TM, Ash was speechless. TM's were exceptionally rare since they could be used an infinite amount of times and the ones that could be bought were extremely powerful but cost a fortune. Here he was being given one for defeating a Gym. He could only say, "Thank you."

"Hah, don't worry about it kid. Now i suggest you get to the Pokemon Center. Your Pokemon look like they're about to keel over form exhaustion."

Indeed looking at both Flair and King, they looked like they could really use some rest. With that Ash exited the Gym but not before grabbing hold of the camera on his neck. Placing Flair on his shoulder and holding King in one arm, he used his free hand to hand the Boulder Badge to Flair.

"Here, A picture to commemorate our first Gym battle." Flair held onto the Badge and Ash held the camera away so that it caught all three of them with the Gym in the background and snapped the picture. Turning his camera around, he showed the picture to Flair and King. "What do you think?"

Flair and King let out happy chirps, for the picture captured Flair holding onto Ash's right shoulder while holding up the Boulder badge and directly below it was King looking beat up but happy. Ash himself was smiling and the background was the double doors of the Gym with the words 'Pewter City Gym' engraved above the doors.

"Heh. Looks like our first milestones been reached. Soon our dream will be a reality. Right?"

King and Flair nodded.

"Come on. Let's get back to the Pokemon Center, you guys really look like you could use some rest."

Both King and Flair nodded feeling very tired.

* * *

**AN: Something that I found on my old PC when I was cycling through it out of boredom. Of course it wasn't nearly as long as this. I just added some parts during the Viridian City part and wrote the rest. Spring breaks started for me and I'll see if I can crank out more chapters. Don't hope to much since I wanna relax from the test I had to take. Laters.**


	2. Chapter 2

Ash had decided stick around Pewter for awhile after he won the Boulder badge from Brock. He was interested in seeing just what kind of festival the city would be hosting for its 500th anniversary in a weeks time. It didn't matter to him if he ended up falling behind in his journey. He still had a year before the Inidgo Plateau Conference rolled around, so he could afford to slow down a bit.

He had also remembered that he had forgotten to give Prof. Oak a call when he first reached Viridian. When he finally called him after getting back to the Pokemon Center from the Gym, he was answered by a very worried Prof. Oak.

...

_"Hello? Who is it?" Prof. Oak answered in an irate tone over the sound only screen._

_"Uh... Prof. Oak, is that you?" Ash asked with a tremor in his voice._

_"...! This voice! Ash is that you?!"_

_"Uh, yea Prof. Oak. Who else would it be?"_

_On the other side of the phone, Ash could hear a sigh being released before a video call replaced the sound only screen._

_"Thank god Ash. When you still didn't call after three days, I had thought you had gotten lost on your way to Viridian like your father. Does this mean you finally reached Viridan City now? Though I must say, you're very far behind your other rivals. Most of them left Viridan City yesterday and started on their way to Pewter City. They should be in the Viridian Forest by now." As Prof. Oak rambled on, Ash couldn't help but wonder if he really inspired so little faith in Prof. Oak._

_Ash interrupted Prof. Oaks rambling though. "Uh, Prof. I'm already in Pewter City. In fact I just got back from my Gym battle." As if to accentuate his point, he flipped open his badge case and showed him the Boulder Badge nestled in it._

_Prof. Oak took one look at it and did a double take. "Dear lord! You already have your first badge? And you're already in Pewter City?"_

_Ash nodded. "Uh, yea. I got here last night."_

_Prof. Oak was stunned. The trainer that he thought was struggling on his journey was actually the one that was furthest ahead of the competition. He awkwardly coughed into his hand. "Well... looks like I misunderstood the situation. I apologize for that. It's just that most trainers call me when they reach Viridian City to inform me that they made it and I can stop worrying. But when you didn't call I assumed you were lagging behind or lost."_

_Ash nodded in understanding. "Ah...yea...I was so excited about reaching Viridian City in a day and heading to Route 22 to catch a glimpse of the Indigo Plateau that calling you slipped my mind. Sorry."_

_"No, no, it's fine. It's good to know that you reached Viridian City safety. That puts my heart at ease. Though judging from the fact that you already have your first badge, I'm guessing you're heading towards Cerulean City tomorrow?"_

_"About that... I'm actually going to stay in Pewter City for another week or two."_

_"Oh? May I ask why? I'd have thought you wanted to stay ahead of your fellow competitors." Prof. Oak asked curiously._

_"It's because their is a festival in a weeks time here celebrating the 500th anniversary of Pewter City's founding and I wanted to see it."_

_Prof. Oak tilted his head and frowned thoughtfully before muttering, "Now that I think about it. It is close to that time." Turning his attention back to Ash, he said, "I see... that's good. It looks like you're taking my advice of enjoying the finer things in life to heart."_

_"Ahaha..." That wasn't really it, he was just curious to see what festivals were like compared to the ones he experienced in Pallet._

_"Well, I'm glad to know you're safe. How are your Pokemon doing anyway?"_

_"Ah. My Pokemon are doing fine. Right now, they're being healed by Nurse Joy."_

_"Oh right. You just got back from a Gym battle. I forgot about that. Well I won't disturb you any further. You're probably tired from such a battle. Do make sure to call some time, okay?"_

_Ash nodded. "Okay. Bye Prof. Oak."_

_With that the screen faded to black._

...

Now he was just going around and exploring the city. The festival was still three days away, so he had some free time on his hands. And right now he was headed towards the Pewter museum. He had heard that it was one of the main attractions of Pewter City. Containing fossils unearthed from the nearby Mount Moon and Tree of Beginning, it was a place that anyone who was interested in the past would want to see.

While he himself wasn't really all that interested in what happened in the past, he wanted to see it anyway, after all he could enjoy the finer things in life like Prof. Oak had said. Stepping in front of the entrance, Ash took a second to admire the architecture of the building. It was unlike anything he had seen in all his time in Pallet Town and the occasional visit to Viridian City. The walls were made from bricks of stone, giving it a brown-grayish tinge, and the purple-red roof made it look like it was a giant rock tempered by fire.

Walking in, he paid for a ticket at the front desk and headed towards the closest section. It just so happened that the closest exhibit was the fossil exhibit, containing fossils of prehistoric Pokemon from all over the region. Some were even imported from the Hoenn and Sinnoh regions.

While looking at a Skull Fossil he couldn't help but hear some muttering nearby.

"_How is the operation in Mt. Moon going?"_

_"Good. Though we didn't find any Moon stones, we unearthed some Pokemon fossils. We had them sent to the Cinnabar facility."_

_"I see... in that case, search the surrounding area for anymore fossils. After that pack up and leave. I've heard some gossip about how Brock is going to be heading to Mt. Moon soon because some people said suspicious activity was going on."_

_"Roger. I'll have start having our guys pull out slowly now. We'll leave some behind to continue the search."_

_"Got it. Get going."_

Hearing a pair of footsteps getting close, he pretended to be interested in the Armor fossil that was next the Skull fossil. He felt someone pass him by as he faked his interest in the fossil. After the first pair of footsteps disappeared, he moved towards the reassembled bones of a Cranidos. Observing it, he heard a second pair of footsteps walk past him, eventually fading into nothing.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he thought about what he had just heard.

"_I wonder just what was that about. The way those two spoke was as if they were doing something illegal. And the way they spoke was as if it was a giant group that was doing it. Then there's the fact that they mentioned Brock going to check on them... for now I'll go warn Brock. While it could be nothing, it's better safe then sorry. The two were suspicious after all. Why hide the fact that they found fossils in Mt. Moon. If they told the public wouldn't they garner more attention that way?_"

Walking towards the exit, Ash made his way out the museum that he didn't even get to fully explore. Once out, he made a straight beeline towards the Pewter City Gym.

As he passed through the city, he noticed that posters of certain events that would be happening during the festival were being put on walls and windows. Some of which sounded interesting to Ash. Reminding himself to look in-depth into what events would be happening later, he arrived in front of the Pewter City gym. Pushing open the doors again because there was no doorbell, he was once greeted to the sight of a pitch black gym. He wondered whether the gym was closed or not. With the place always seemingly pitch black, it was hard to tell.

He waited for about five minutes hoping someone would come out of the darkness like before, but when no one did, he prepared to leave. When he got outside, he bumped into someone. Looking at the person he bumped into, he saw that it was the referee for him and Brock's battle.

"Ah, sorry about that."

"No, no it's my fault for not looking where I was going... hey you're that Ash Ketchum guy from a few days ago."

"Ah. You remember me?"

"Of course! You're one of the four guys that I refereed for in the past few days. The day after you came, three more guys challenged the gym and all three managed to win a badge. So of course I would remember."

Ash was silent. "Were the challengers from Pallet Town?"

"Yea! They were all from Pallet Town...hey! Aren't you from Pallet Town as well?"

Ash nodded. "Yea I'm from Pallet Town."

"Heh. That's so cool. Are all Pallet Town trainers that good that they could all win their first gym battle?"

"Ah. I wouldn't really know. And wasn't it because Brock didn't go full strength on any of us?"

"Mhm. I guess that's true."

"By the way. What were you doing coming out of the gym?" The boys eyes narrowed in suspicion if that was at all possible.

Ash held up his hands in a surrender gesture. "I was looking for Brock. I thought he would be in the gym, but when I came here and went in. No one answered and I thought I just had to wait a bit. When no one came I decided to leave and ask at the Pokemon Center where he would be."

"Ah. I see. In that case, I can tell you."

"You can?"

"Yea, he's my brother after all. Of course I would know where he is."

"In that case, can you tell me? I have something I want to talk to him about."

"Hm..." The boy watched him through his squinted eyes that it was hard to tell what he was thinking. Eventually he decided. "Right now, he should be at home preparing for the festival. You just need to walk straight down that way" he pointed towards a direction and continued, "and turn right and walk straight again. At the end of the road you should see a house. You can't miss it."

"Okay. Thank you...?"

"Forrest. Nice to meet you."

"Ah. thank you Forrest. Hopefully I'll see you at the festival."

"Your welcome."

"Bye." Ash waved and walked off, following the directions Forrest gave him.

In ten minutes he was in the rural part of town and in front of him, he could see a modest size house. Walking up to the front door, he rung the doorbell and patiently waited for an answer.

The person who opened the door was a kid that looked like a miniature Brock and Forrest.

Ash asked, "Hello. Is Brock here?"

The boy looked at Ash before shouting behind him. "Brock! You have a visitor!"

he heard a muffled shout in response. The boy turned to Ash. "He said he'll be here soon. Why don't you come inside and have a seat."

"Uh. Thank you very much." Walking into the house, he followed the kid to a living room. The kid gestured to him to take a seat, so he did. Looking around, he noticed that despite it being a gym leaders house, it was surprisingly plain.

It didn't take long before Brock showed up in an apron of all things. Ash looked at it with wide eyes. While he didn't have anything against aprons, the fact that the one Brock was wearing was pink of all things really made him want to hit his head against something. But he couldn't do that or else he would come off as rude.

When Ash saw him he gave a greeting. "Hey Ash! What brings you to my humble home?"

"Ah... I actually wanted to talk to you about something."

"Oh and what's that?"

"Well, this morning or so I went to the Pewter City museum to have a look at the fossils there."

"Ah. Did you enjoy your visit? Those fossils were unearth near here and the League managed to import some from Hoenn and Sinnoh as well."

"I didn't get to see much but I found them okay. What I wanted to talk about was what I heard when I was there though."

"What you heard?"

"Yea. When I was at the museum, near the back of the fossil exhibit I heard two people talking in low voices."

"Okay...? It's normal to converse in low voices inside a museum."

"Yea, the thing is though they were talking about finding Moon Stones on Mt. Moon."

"That's normal. Lots of adventurers go to Mt. Moon in hopes of finding a Moon Stone."

"Yea, I plan on doing that myself after I go their, but it's what came next that I wanted to talk to you about. After the first guy said they couldn't find any Moon Stones, they said that they found some Pokemon fossils instead."

Brock frowned at this, but Ash continued. "After that, he also said that they sent them off the Cinnabar facility and the other guy said to pack up and leave because they heard rumors about you going to Mt. Moon to investigate because there were suspicious people in Mt. Moon."

Brock's frown deepened. Ash noticed and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, continue the story."

"Uh, well after that, the other guy said that he would tell the group to slowly leave while the others would continue looking for fossils in the surrounding area. After that, the first guy left and soon after, the second left as well."

"I see..." Brock looked thoughtful at what he had told him. Eventually he said, "I'll look into it. I was already planning on going sometime, but what you just told me requires looking into. If they indeed found Pokemon fossils, they would've needed a permit to start excavating them and searching for more. But I didn't receive a memo from the League saying there would be any such thing."

"Alright. I just told you because I thought you'd like to know." Ash got up and prepared to leave.

"Ah. Thanks for that. I hope you enjoy the festival." Brock started to bring him to the door.

"Mhm. Good bye.", Walking out, Ash started making his way back to the city. Guess he would head back to the Pokemon Center to rest for now. He would let his Pokemon out so they could get some exercise done and then he would turn in for the night. Tomorrow would be back to work for them while they waited for the festival to come.

Ash really wanted to get King to learn Horn Attack, Tackle attack wouldn't cut it anymore if his match against Brock was anything to go by. Queen, he would have to start working on Shockwave. While he wasn't sure if she could learn it, he would try teaching it to her anyway since she seemed to dislike getting up close to her opponent. It would also help during the Cerulean City Gym since they specialized in Water-types. It looked like Flair would be sitting out this round since she was a Fire-type and he didn't think she'd like to be anywhere near water.

No doubt she would be angry, but he already planned on trying to teach her Dragon Rage and as a Dragon-type move, it would be extremely hard to use and master. So he hoped a move that was extremely hard to use and master would deter her from being too angry at him.

Walking into the Pokemon Center, he gave a nod to the Nurse Joy at the front desk and headed towards his room. Inside it, he quickly released his Pokemon.

His Pokemon all appeared in flashes of white light and instantly looked towards him.

"Hey guys, sorry for not letting you out earlier but the museum wouldn't let Pokemon enter in fear of them ruining the exhibits." All three of his Pokemon started sulking at this. "Anyway, I thought I'd let you out for now so you can move around a bit before dinner. So enjoy yourself for tonight because tomorrows going to be a day full of training!"

His Pokemon nodded and all started moving towards the top bunk bed where they quickly zoned a part of the bed for themselves and started sleeping. Ash couldn't help but sweat drop at how lazy his Pokemon were. Was this the fabled imprinting that Prof. Oak had talked about? Maybe he shouldn't have been so lazy after all.

Shrugging he moved to the terminal in the room and started browsing through the League site connected to it. Moving through the Indigo Plateau conference date, he saw that he still had eleven months or so before he needed to have eight badges to qualify. For now, he just went with registering himself as a possible trainer for the event. Even if he didn't manage to assemble all eight badges in the time allotted, he still wanted to see it for himself.

With that done, he started looking through the trainer tips that other trainers stated were good tips. He started with the ones that had good ratings and went down from there. As he did though, he saw a tip that was interesting, it said, '_Trainers should train alongside their Pokemon. This way they both go through the pain together strengthening their bonds. This also has the added benefit of keeping the trainer in shape and if you dedicate yourself to it, you can even keep up with your Pokemon at times.'_

Ash thought that this was pretty good advice. So he jotted it down in his notebook that he had taken out to keep track of other good tips as well. He was looking through them so intently that it wasn't until Flair nudged him that he tore his eyes away from the screen. Looking down at Flair, he saw that King and Queen were right next to her and both were giving him glares?

Wondering what was wrong, he saw Flair point towards the clock. Looking at it, he was shocked to see that it was past dinner time and was almost time for bed. Looking at the screen, he made sure he wasn't hallucinating. Sure enough the numbers 9:27 PM were right there.

Turning to his Pokemon he quickly apologized, "Sorry! I was so into looking over the trainers tips that I forgot about dinner. Come on, let's go get it now before the dining hall closes."

With that Ash and his Pokemon trooped out of the room and made their way to the dining hall. Luckily, the dining hall was still open, so Ash ordered a quick dinner for himself and the Poke-chow specific for his Pokemon. Once Ash received the food, he quickly bought it back to his room, his Pokemon walking at his heels keeping their eyes on the food above them.

Once back inside his room, he laid the plates of food in front of his Pokemon, before heading back to terminal. Setting the food down on the table, he resumed browsing through the tips while occasionally stopping to take a bite of this food or to jot something down on his book.

When him and his Pokemon finished, he picked up the empty paper plates and tossed them in the garbage chute that was connected to his room. His Pokemon after eating dinner went back to sleep on top on the bed prompting Ash to wonder if he was really that bad for them to pick on his habits after less then a week. After browsing a bit more, he decided to take a shower and call it a night.

Getting into bed, he reminded himself that tomorrow he would head to Route 3 so that his team could get started on what he wanted to teach them.

...

The next morning after breakfast him and his Pokemon headed to Route 3 so that they could get some training in.

Ash mentally went over what he would be trying to teach his Pokemon today. For Flair, he would get her started on trying to learn Dragon Rage, while for King he would try and teach him Horn Attack and Queen would get started on learning Shockwave.

Turning to his team, Ash clapped his hands. "Alright team. The next two days are going to be days full of training. For the third day, we'll all take a break since the festival is the day after and we all want to be well rested for that right?"

His Pokemon all let out affirmative cries.

"Good. In that case, here's today's schedule. Flair will be trying to learn Dragon Rage since she'll be sitting out the next Gym battle depending on how it goes." Flair turned to Ash with a scandalized look on her face, but when Ash shook his head, she slumped forward in depression. King and Queen moved to comfort her. Ash watched a bit before continuing. "King will get started on learning Horn Attack since Tackle attack doesn't seem to cut it anymore." King nodded at this. "Queen will get started on learning Shockwave in preparation for the Cerulean City Gym." Queen stood straighter at this. "Of course, both Dragon Rage and Shockwave are attacks that should be above your current skill level, but I'm sure with enough practice, you'll have enough experience to use it by the time we reach Cerulean City. Now lets get started."

Again his Pokemon let out affirmative cries.

Moving to Flair first, he got down to eye level with her. "... I know you're angry with me for leaving you out of the next Gym Battle, but it's a gym that specializes in Water-types that would put you at a severe weakness." Flair still turned away causing Ash to sigh. "Look, I know you're angry about being left out, but if the challenge becomes a three on three Gym battle, then I'll use you as well okay?" Flair gave a reluctant nod. "Good, now let's get you started on learning Dragon Rage. Your mastery of Ember puts plenty of other Charmanders to shame already. Smokescreen can be worked on in tandem with Dragon Rage. The basic idea to using Dragon Rage is to store up as much power as you can inside your throat and then release it like you would Ember, but instead of thinking fire, think pure rage. think you can try it?"

Again a nod, but this time more enthusiastically. Ash smiled. "Good, try it for now, I'll come check your progress after I start on King and Queen's training as well." Moving over to King he started explaining how his training regime would go. "Alright King, I'm sure you felt it when you faced Brock's Geodude, but it looks like Tackle attack will no longer cut it against Gym Leaders." King gave a depressed nod at this. His vaulted power was useless against the Rock-type and that was when Geodude choose to take it instead of dodging. Ash watched as King became depressed. "Hey! No worries little guy. I have no doubt your Tackle would work on any other Pokemon, but against a Gym Leader who are considered one of the best of trainers, its to be expected. But then again I don't think we'll meet another Trainer that can have a Rock-type that can resist such an attack. But just in case, we'll be upping your speed training again, because I have no doubt other Gym Leader's Pokemon will be even faster. As for how to use Horn Attack. The theory behind it is pretty simple. Instead of attacking straight on like you would use Tackle, you instead aim with your horn and after that it's the same principle as Tackle. Understand?"

King gave a hesitant nod. "Okay. For now try aiming with your horn and adding a tackle to it. After you feel like you're familair with how to aim your horn, then we'll work on testing it out and remember to run around to try and up your speed. No I'll be going to start Queen on her training. Good luck." Giving a nod to King, he moved over to Queen.

"Alright girl, you ready for the training?" Queen gave out an affirmative cry. "Okay, since we're going to be working on Shockwave, I should give my honest opinion of your current status." Queen looked interested at this. What did her trainer think of her? "In summary. I don't think you're strong enough to learn such an attack."

"N-Nido?!" Queen looked shocked. Her trainer didn't think she was ready?

"Don't get me wrong, I don't think you're strong enough because with your current body, I don't think your body will be able to generate enough electricity to release a Shockwave. So it's not so much that I think you're weak, but rather your current body can't release the energy required for it. Of course, this is pure speculation. We won't know until we actually try and I'm sure you'll want to prove me wrong. Right?"

Queen gained a determined expression at this and nodded. Ash smirked. "Good, the theory behind Shockwave is that the user gathers energy inside their body and then they quickly release it as a bolt of electricity. If you're fast enough, then the attack is nigh unavoidable. Think you understand so far?"

Queen nodded again. "Good, so what you'll be doing is gathering energy inside your body and from their you find a comfortable place that you want to release the attack from. Generally, most Pokemon from their head, mouth or tail. So those would be a good place to start. Okay?"

Another nod. "Okay, for now get started, I'll come check up on you later."

With that all his Pokemon had started on learning the moves that Ash thought would suit them. With Dragon Rage, Flair would now have 2 types of attacks to use, Fire and Dragon. While she lacked any close up skills besides Scratch, he was confident that she could maintain a distance from any opponent. King was learning Horn Attack since Tackle wouldn't cut it against something that had a high amount of Defense, so he had to increase penetrating power with Horn Attack. Then Ash remembered that King used Double Kick during the Gym Battle. He would have to check up on that later. He didn't think King would learn it mid- battle. Queen on the other hand had seen the smallest amount of combat, so he settled for Shockwave since she seemed to prefer to fight a battle of attrition. With Shockwave, then she could simply keep any opponent that tries to get close at bay while resorting to Poison Sting and Scratch when they got close.

Ash nodded as he watched his Pokemon try to use the moves he told them about. Flair seemed to at least be able to release a breath of blue energy before it dissipated. It showed that she was learning at an exceptional rate to already be able to release even a whiff of Dragon Rage since Dragon-types attacks were one of the hardest to learn. King seemed to be aiming with his horn and adding a dash to it like he had instructed Queen to do when they moved through the Viridan Forest. Ash nodded at this, a sudden burst of speed would definitely surprise an opponent enough to give King enough time to use Tackle or Horn Attack. Queen on the other hand seemed to have trouble generating the electricity from her mouth. It looked like she could gather the energy but couldn't release it as electricity since she seemed to stall every time a small ball of light formed in front of her mouth.

After looking at him Pokemon a bit, he got to work on a workout he made for himself. It consisted of 50 squats, push ups and a bit of running. While it wasn't the most detailed nor the most tailored for him, it was a decent amount that most trainers used until they were older to prevent their growth from being stunted. At least that's what he found out when he searched up a work out schedule for himself.

His Pokemon paused in their training when they saw their training seemingly doing some training of his own. After watching for a bit they seemed to remember they had their own training and resumed with renewed vigor.

Once Ash was done with his set, he moved over to Flair while breathing a bit heavy. It seemed this workout was perfect for him to get used to keeping his body active and in shape.

"Alright Flair... let's see what you got down so far." Ash said in between pauses.

Flair nodded at her huffing trainer and moved her head back to the tree she was aiming at 10 meters away. Inhaling a large breath, she opened her mouth and slowly a raging ball of blue started forming in front of her mouth. However as seconds passed and the ball showed no sign of stabilizing, he looked at Flair and noticed she had her eyes screwed up in concentration. Looking back at the Dragon Rage, he noticed that the once raging sphere of energy had been reduced to a tenth of its size until it eventually fizzled out.

At the failed attempt Flair became depressed. Ash patted her on the head. "Good job, You're learning it much faster than I thought you would."

Flair still looked depressed despite the praise. Ash noticed and reassured her, "Hey girl, don't worry about it. It's pretty good progress you're making, so don't worry about not being able to get it down in a day. In fact I'd think it'd be impossible for you anyone to learn it in a day."

Flair nodded and went back to work again. Seeing her going back to work, Ash headed over to King who seemed to having _way_ to much fun headbutting a tree with his horn. "Alright King, let's see what you got." Going over to the fallen tree, he picked up a piece of wood and held it vertically. "Alright King, this is your target let's see how your training's going."

King got into position and aimed with his horn. As he did though, Ash frowned, King was taking way too long to set up his Horn Attack. He would have to add instant decision making to his Pokemons training regime. Once King was ready, he immediately charged at the piece of wood being held upright by Ash. When King made contact with the wood, Ash had to move the hell away from it as the wood exploded from the force of King's charge and he didn't want to get hit by the shrapnel.

King came to a halt a meter away from where Ash was. It glanced back at his trainer waiting for his judgement. Ash couldn't help but whistle at the damage done with Horn Attack, it was much stronger than Tackle, that was for sure. Tackle wouldn't have caused the wood to explode, no it would've merely splintered inwards. "Alright, it looks like you've got Horn Attack pat down, but your decision making to where you're aiming for needs a lot of work. I doubt in trainers would wait for you to aim in battle. Okay?"

King gave a nod at this. "Good, Other than that, do you still remember how to do Double Kick? I saw you use it near the end in the Gym battle."

Another nod. "Kay, show me."

King moved up to a tree and turned around, it inhaled before his hind legs glowed and he delivered a Double Kick to the tree. The tree ended up shaking, causing leaves to rain down on King. When King moved away, Ash saw 2 paw prints stamped into the bark of the tree. Ash gave another nod. "Okay, it seems that you can use it freely?"

King nodded. "In that case, try adding combing Focus Energy and Double Kick together. Or Focus Energy and Horn Attack. It should make your attacks that much more painful."

King nodded and started getting to work on combining Focus Energy and Double Kick. Ash nodded and started moving towards Queen.

"Alright Queen, both your team mates are making good progress, now lets see you." Queen nodded. She slowly started gathering energy and then she opened her mouth. Slowly a small blue ball of light formed, but it fizzed out after a few seconds. Ash raised an eyebrow. She tried again and the results were the same. Ash sighed. "I was afraid of this."

Queen slumped in depression at not even being able form a partial version of it. "Hey, don't worry about it, I did say that this technique was impossible since your small body can't generate enough electricity. But I have a way to help you jump start it."

Queen looked up at this. If her trainer had a way to jump start her body into producing electricity why hadn't he done it to her?

Ash seeing the look explained. "It's the same with all Electric-types. Or at least I think so. Most Electric-types have an area where they store electricity for their attacks. Like Pikachu or Raichu store electricity in their cheek sacs, while Magnemite generate it from the magnets attached to them. However you aren't an Electric-type, so your body has to be accustomed to changing your regular energy into electricity. Of course not all Pokemon can do that. But the known way to get a Pokemon to do such a thing is to shock them with electricity until the point where their body memorizes the electricity flowing through them which allows them to convert their own energy into electricity."

Queen suddenly understood where he was going. Ash nodded, "That's right, in order to jump start your to convert energy into electricity, I need to put you under repeated Electric-type attacks. Which is why I'm reluctant to use such a method."

Queen looked at Ash and started chattering. "Nido! Ni Nido!"

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to tell me you'll do it anyway? Despite the pain you could be in?"

Queen gave a determined nod which Ash smiled at. "Are you sure about this?"

She nodded again. "...Very well" Moving over to his bag, he rummaged around inside until he found what he was looking for. Moving back over to Queen he showed her what he held in his hand. "This is a taser that has enough voltage in it to equate to a Thundershock from a Pikachu. I don't really think getting a Pokemon to repeatedly use Electric-type attacks on you is good for your health, so for now you'll use this to get used to the feel of electricity until you can convert your energy into electricity. Then we'll test whether or not you can use Shockwave again, okay? There's no need to rush, we're still maybe a week away from Cerulean City."

Queen nodded. Ash taught Queen how to activate the taser and left her with it. Hopefully she would be able to at least partially manifest Shockwave's form by the end of today, but he didn't want to rush her.

Returning to another set of his workout, Ash wondered whether what he was doing was worth it or not. Already his body was screaming in protest and he hadn't even finished 1/3 of his workout. Though he did admit that seeing him working out himself seemed to motivate his Pokemon to do the same.

They had stayed like that until they took an afternoon break from training. At which point all his Pokemon were petered out from the non-stop training they had done. Still Ash couldn't help but feel proud, despite being on his journey for less than a week, his Pokemon all took their training seriously and his Pokemon were already leaning towards specific specializations.

There break was interrupted though when they heard rumbling coming from the main road of Route 3. Ash frowned, as far as he knew, their wasn't suppose to be an earthquake happening today especially since if such an event happened, then there should've been an evacuation order.

Turning to his Pokemon he quickly returned them to their Pokeballs and started moving back onto the main road from the clearing he was in. As he made his way onto the main road, he saw that it was an Onix that was generating the rumbling. It was heading towards the city from the direction of Mt. Moon. Moving to the entrance of the city, he waited along with the rest of the people who had come wondering what the rumbling was.

He heard one of the people whisper to another person, "Isn't that Onix, Brocks? What's it doing without it's trainer?". Ash raised an eyebrow at this. Looking back towards the approaching Onix, he spotted the lack of trainer in sight. Eventually the Onix came to a halt in front of the city and started looking through the crowd. At least that's what Ash thought it was doing. When it spotted whoever it was looking for, it moved it's head to nudge the person.

The person who was nudged was the resident Officer Jenny of the city. She looked at the Onix in confusion but seemed to understand what it was trying to say. Getting on top of the Onix, it turned back in the direction that it came from and started moving in the direction of Mt. Moon.

After it disappeared from view, the people who gathered at the entrance to watch the spectacle slowly dispersed. Ash stayed behind a bit to watch. If what the person said was true, then that Onix was Brocks, and since it came from the direction of Mt. Moon, did that mean something happened to him? No, if he was then Brock would be with Onix, since it brought Officer Jenny with it, then that meant something happened that required her presence. Shaking his head, he headed back towards the Pokemon Center. It was going to get dark soon and he wanted to get an early dinner over with. All the exercise had gotten him real tired and his muscles were aching, so he would get an early dinner for him and his Pokemon and then he would turn in early for the night

...

The next morning, Ash had a hard time waking up. Mostly because his body was screaming in protest and he was now experiencing the feeling of having his muscles torn making even the smallest movements hurt. But he knew he would have to get up eventually, he couldn't just spend a full day doing nothing but trying to sleep off the pain.

So with great effort he got out of bed and wobbly made his way to the shower. Letting the warm water hit his aching body, he sighed in content as the warm water soothed his aching muscles.

When he got out, he quickly got dressed and headed for the dining hall for breakfast. Releasing his Pokemon he said, "Time to go get breakfast."

His Pokemon who all went through a full night of rest let out a cheer.

Stepping up to the counter, he quickly ordered food for himself and his Pokemon. Moving to an empty table, he and his Pokemon quickly started digging in.

When they were done, Ash turned to his Pokemon and said, "Today will be a repeat of yesterday. Understand?"

His Pokemon nodded and the group made their way back to the clearing they were in yesterday. As they passed through the exit into Route 3, Ash couldn't help but notice the tracks left behind by the Onix. It seemed to when it came back again some time last night, it headed towards the police station if he remembered the city layout correctly.

Shrugging, he and his group made it to the clearing from yesterday and resumed their training. Though Ash did noticeably less than yesterday since his body was aching and he didn't have the benefit of near instant recovery like Pokemon.

His Pokemon on the other hand were a different story. It seemed that after a good nights rest they were more reinvigorated then before and were training with gusto. Flair seemed to emit a small stream of blue energy in front of her everytime she tried. While it wasn't a complete Dragon Rage, it was a good start for her since she just started learning it yesterday. King seemed to be cycling between practicing his aim with Horn Attack or trying to use Focus Energy and Double Kick at the same time. He seemed to be making good progress with using Focus Energy and Double Kick, but seemed to have a hard time aiming the way he wanted. Mostly because he lacked the speed to make near instantaneous turns like his more nimble Pokemon. Queen was repeatedly getting shocked by the taser he had given her and she seemed to get the gist of how to convert her energy into electricity as accented by the static being generated every time her ears neared each other.

That was how their day passed. With Ash overseeing his Pokemon 's training every time he took a break from his workout while his Pokemon all tried to get their attacks working or finding ways to overcome their weakness. By the time it was mid-afternoon, Ash decided to call it a day. He wanted to give his Pokemon the rest of the day off so that tomorrow they could be fresh for the Pewter Festival. There were some events he wanted to take part in, and he needed his Pokemon in top shape for them.

...

As he entered the Pokemon Center, he was greeted to the sight of Brock proposing to Nurse Joy. Ash couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at this. Looking around he saw that people seemed to ignore the fact that Brock just proposed to Nurse Joy. He just stood there observing the spectacle. The Nurse Joy seemed to sigh before hitting brock on the head and handing Brock some Pokeballs. Brock bounced back from being hit on the head and put the Pokeballs onto his belt and turned to leave, but when he spotted Ash, he made his way over to him.

"Hey Ash, how's it going? Excited about the festival?"

"Yea, going to let my Pokemon relax for the rest of the day so that they can be in top shape for tomorrow."

"I see, well if you have time, be sure to head over to my booth. I'll be holding a demonstration and lecture of how to care for specific types of Pokemon and the sort of illnesses one should look out for during their journey. You have no idea how many trainers or there Pokemon get sick during their journeys and have no clue how to treat it until they reach a town which caused them to be hospitalized."

"Ah... I'll be sure to drop by." Yep, definitely, he did not want to be one of those people Brock just mentioned.

"By the way, thanks for the tip the other day. It really helped."

"Huh? How did I help? And what was your Onix doing yesterday?"

"You helped by prompting me to go investigate Mt. Moon sooner. Because of that I was able to catch some Team Rocket operatives around the area. Thanks to that the police can now raid some of the Team Rocket bases in the area around the area and we've discovered even more from the operatives we've interrogated. As for what my Onix was doing, he was getting an Officer Jenny onto the scene so we could search for the other operatives that scattered after I ambushed them."

"Uh, but I don't really understand how I helped. So I gave you a reason to investigate sooner. Wouldn't you have done it eventually anyway?"

"Yea, that's true, but you told me right after you overheard them and when I ambushed them, they were in the middle of packing up some of their equipment. So you could say thanks to your tip off, the League managed to bust a large Team Rocket operation in the area. And now, League officials and the police are sweeping through the area cleaning up the remnants. You could say because of you, Pewter City and the surrounding area is now free of Team Rocket influence." Brock paused and then scowled. "At least until they manage to reset their operations here."

"Oh..."

"Anyway, the reason I'm telling you this is because since you helped, your name was mentioned in the report to the League and you need to be debriefed about what happened. Make sure to not tell anyone about this okay?"

Ash nodded. He understood the threat Team Rocket posed to the Kanto and Johto regions and the best thing to do was to keep the people ignorant so they wouldn't panic.

Brock nodded, "Well I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Uh, yea I'll be sure to be there. What time?"

"Hm... around the noon should be good since that's when I'll be starting."

Ash mentally went over the events he wanted to take part in and nodded when it clashed with nothing. "Got it."

Brocked nodded again and made his way out of the Pokemon Center, Ash headed to his room and let his Pokemon out so that they could rest of the bed. They happily clambered onto their section of the bed and fell asleep.

Ash got onto the terminal. He wanted to research more about how to care about Pokemon and what illnesses to watch out for now that Brock brought up such an interesting point.

...

The next morning Ash woke up early, he wanted to feel fresh for today since it was the day of the festival. Quickly getting up, he hopped into the shower and was out again in 10 minutes. Letting his Pokemon sleep some more, he headed towards the dining hall so that he could order himself food for him and his Pokemon. Once he got that, he brought it back to his room and his Pokemon smelling the food he brought, woke up and started moving over to their food.

When they were done, they all headed out of the Pokemon Center where people were up and bustling already despite it not even being 10 o' clock. He really wanted to take part in the Battle Circle where it was a free for all between the trainers Pokemon. The goal was knock the opponent's Pokemon out of the circle. Whoever was the last one standing in the circle was declared the winner. It was very straightforward and Ash thought he stood a decent chance at victory.

He was still debating whether to use Flair or King. On one hand using Flair would require her to sew general chaos into the fight since he doubted Flair would have the power to push out some of the heavier Pokemon. Which would mean she would have to rely on herding or annoying her opponents out of the ring. King on the other hand had the power but lacked the speed so if he ended up trying to push up faster Pokemon out, chances were he would end up outside instead of his target. Queen wouldn't stand a chance since she wasn't heavy and lacked the needed power to push out her opponents.

Eventually Ash settled on King since he stood the best chance. Moving towards the registration booth outside the ring.

Signing up his Nidoran(M), he moved over to a corner of the ring and watched as other trainers who signed up made last minute strategies with their own Pokemon. Ash could see a multitude of Geodudes, Ratattas, Machops, Machokes, some Ryhorns and squinting he could make out what looked like a Ryhdon in the crowd. He really couldn't tell since there was over 100 participants since he was contestant number 136.

Soon enough the whole place was filled to the brim and everyone was getting their last minute strategies down. Ash was doing the same with King. "Alright buddy, this is all about pushing your opponents out of the ring, understand?"

King nodded. "Alright, now also remember that this is a free for all, so no one is your ally. Everyone will be trying their hardest to knock you out and you should return the favor."

Another nod. "But since we're new to this, stick to the middle of the circle. That way you have a less chance of being knocked out since being in the middle means it'll take longer for you to be pushed to the edge. Now go out there and enjoy yourself, but don't get too injured, we have to be at Brock's booth in an hour and a half. Understand?"

A nod again and Ash nodded as well. Standing up from his kneeling position he waited for the clock to strike 10:30 which was when the event would start. There was about a minute remaining.

When the clock hit 10:30, a bell was sounded and the announcer started saying something but Ash couldn't really hear it. Because the moment the bell sounded, where he was standing erupted into a war zone, at least that's what Ash thought. All around him he could hear trainers shouting encouragement to their Pokemon, not even giving them orders. He could also see that there were some trainers like him. Utterly clueless to what was going on.

In front of them, the entire ring had devolved into a brawl. Pokemon were just hitting each other with everything they had, making it near indistinguishable to know what was going on at all. So Ash did the only thing he could do. He shouted encouragement along with the rest of the trainers and hoped King could hear him over the din.

The brawl, it couldn't be anything else, continued for maybe 15 minutes where Pokemon were being knocked out of the ring every 30 seconds or so. The unlucky trainers that had their Pokemon knocked out went over to their knocked out Pokemon and either left or stuck around to watch the conclusion.

Ash was one of those unlucky trainers. King sadly had to go up against a Golem and it gladly grabbed him and tossed him out of the ring. Ash had gone over to his depressed Pokemon and patted him on the head. While he wanted to win, he had severely underestimated the competition he would be facing.

"Don't worry about it buddy, I'm sure you would've done better, but it seems like there are quite a few more experienced trainers here than I would've thought. So don't worry too much about it, it's not because you're weak, but rather we lack the experience."

King nodded at Ash cheering him up. Looking back at the brawl, the contestants were now narrowed down to a handful and it seemed that the trainers that had shouted encouragement before were no actively giving orders now that they could see their Pokemon instead of just Pokemon throwing themselves at each other.

Turning to King he asked, "So you wanna stick around for the conclusion or do you want to head to Brock's lecture?"

King tilted his head before motioning with his head that he wanted to leave. Ash nodded and both left the park that served as the ring. When they were on the outskirts, Ash released Flair and Queen from their Pokeballs.

When both of them came out, they looked around and could see that they were now walking back towards the busier part of the city with people bustling through the stalls that were set up. Seeing that King looked beat up and depressed, they moved over to comfort him while Ash continued moving with his Pokemon walking a bit behind him.

He stopped by a stall every now and then to ask for directions to Brock's location since he had no idea himself. Soon enough they arrived in front of a school. Ash raised an eyebrow at this. Looks like Brock was serious when he said he was going to be having a lecture. Walking in, his Pokemon followed him while turning their heads to observe their surroundings. This was the first time they had been in a school before so they were curious about it.

Asking a passing teacher, he asked for directions to Brock's lecture and was pointed in the direction he needed to go. Entering the classroom, he saw that it was quite packed. This was perhaps one of those times where he was shocked that people actually seemed to look forward to being in school. Looking at the time, he saw he still had another 30 minutes before the lecture would start. Choosing a location near the window, he and his Pokemon made their way to an open seat. His Pokemon all clambered onto the window sill since they couldn't really sit in the desks or stay on the ground.

As time passed, more and more people came in prompting them to bring in chairs from other classes and some were forced to stand if they wanted to stay. When the clock struck 12, the door to the class opened again and this time Brock walked in with a white lab coat giving him a look that was suited for a professor.

"Alright class, I'm sure that all of you are here to learn something new right?"

Quite a few of the people in the class laughed for some reason but Ash wasn't really sure why. Brock just shook his head at the laughter. He clapped his hands together to get the attention of the laughing people.

"Alright, now that I have your attention, let's begin shall we?" As he said that, he brought out a Pokeball and released a Pidgey that looked way under the weather.

"Now class... as you can see this is a Pidgey that has a severe fever..."

...

Ash left the school building dazed along with his Pokemon and a multitude of other people. The things he learned in there were traumatizing and he wasn't sure he would ever look at a spring onion the same ever again. His Pokemon were the same, they looked as if they were scarred for life and whenever they heard someone from the crowd mutter "fever" they would freeze up and an expression of terror would flit across their faces.

Ash shook his head, while he had to admit Brock knew what he was talking about and what needed to be done, but did the demonstration have to be so brutal? Now he knew to definitely _never_get a fever or at least make sure he was alone when he was. No way could shoving a scallion up ones behind be considered a cure for a fever. It just didn't make sense. But that damn Raticate proved it wrong.

Aside from the traumatizing effects of the lecture Ash learned a lot. Like how some Pokemon needed to have a healthy diet or else they would purposely be weakening themselves by not having the necessary nutrition. Like that for Electric-types he had to make sure that they discharged their energy almost everyday or else they would end up suffering from electric overcharging or how Water-types need to be kept hydrated or else their water glands wouldn't be able to generate water when they needed to use a water attack. Even Rock-types needed a polish every now and then to make sure that they were in tip top shape.

Ash shook his head, so much stuff was learned and while Brock said this would be helpful on anyones journey, it was still recommended that they research it for themselves so they knew how to care for their own Pokemon.

Getting his Pokemons attention, he motioned to the festival that was still going on around them. His Pokemon all started moving around and as Ash made his way through the stalls, he was quite interested in the prizes that some stalls had. Like the Moon Stones that stalls had as prizes if people managed to beat the game. There were ring tosses, target shooting, pokemon battles, etc.

Ash had decided that Flair would do good with the target shooting, especially since she could aim better good with Ember. They won a Fire Stone since Flair was a Fire-type and the prize was dependent on the participants type. Of course after that, Ash had to give up since he doubted Queen would be able to get off Shockwave and King had no ranged attacks.

Though they still participated in some events, Ash won an Everstone and a pair of Soothe Bells from a contest with King and Queen respectively.

Soon enough, the day drew to a close and Ash found himself getting ready to go to sleep.

Tomorrow, he would finally be leaving Pewter City which he had stayed in for a week and continuing his journey. He was technically behind his rivals now that he had stayed in Pewter for a week. All of his fellow rivals from Pallet had decided to skip the festival and continue on their journey. So now it was Ash's turn to catch up. He shook his head, he didn't know why they were rushing, the Indigo Conference was still 11 months away, so why were they rushing like that? Even if they got all eight badges, what would they do in the remaining time to the league? Spend the entire time training? That sounded depressing even to him. Ash fell asleep to such thoughts. Wondering why people seemed to be rushing so much.

* * *

**AN: The end really made me scratch my head. It feels better in my head, but when I write it out, it feels like crap, dunno what's wrong with it. School is starting and this'll probably be my last chapter in a while. Probably will write small amounts during breaks I have in school.**


End file.
